< Some Chaos, and Then Into the Belly of the Beast! | Ex Pulplogs | She Is In Use! >
Xar looks around, nostrils flaring as the scent of the Behemoth's breathing fills his nose. "I am interested in what else is in its stomach."
Myrrh "Well not the brides...it wouldn't want to digest them..."
Myrrh "You take me to the nicest places Corve, did I ever tell you that?" He smirks and shoulders the revolution, looking for something to stand on so he doesn't lose his favorite traveling boots.
Corve snorts. "Unless it eats them to use their bodies to create its progeny, or something equally distasteful." He scratches his head lightly and chuckles at Myrrh's comment. "Hey, don't blame me.* I was all for letting the city burn, remember?" He wouldn't have let that happen, but it seems like a good counter-argument.
Myrrh "Well that was before we found out it was melded in the rock..."
Corve shrugs. "Still not my fault," he murmurs, his forehead shining gold as he turns his head around, trying to get a good look at their surroundings. "How the hell are we supposed to get out of here..?" Rhetorical question... unless someone has a real answer.
Carmine "Well, I don't think it's mouth is going to open while it's still alive..."
Myrrh "Not sure, if we go back and clear the tunnel mouth it might just collapse it on us again."
Xar "I wonder if anything we carry is poison to it." he muses.
Corve looks at Carmine and makes a face. "So, anyone ask themselves exactly where we entered through? I mean..." yes, he has a disgusting mind at times like this. "...it might not've been its mouth."
Myrrh "Well since you aren't being attacked by giant white blood cells..."
Xar "Does it matter? We are inside it now. It has probably less armor here, whether mouth or waste-place."
Corve nods slowly. "Well, let's give it a try, hmm? Myrrh... you mind shoving some big bullet down this thing..." He'd do it himself, but the Revolution will probably be more efficient.
Myrrh "Well let's shoot something a bit further away from us. Just incase it has anything like acid spewing tentacles for blood..."
Myrrh aims the massive weapon a bit further back the way they came. "You might want to cover your eyes and ears. Enclosed spaces and all that..."
Xar "We need not hide our light, now, too." He turns away from Myrrh, shielding his eyes and ears
Corve nods at the wise suggestion from his friend and walks behind Myrrh, wrapping a hand around Carmine's wrist and pulling her along with him... mostly just to have her close. Then he closes his eyes and covers his ears. "Blow it."
Myrrh waits for the signal and then FIRES at the creature using the maximum collateral damage setting!
Myrrh waits for the echo and the smoke to clear before checking what damage they did to the thing.
ST Myrrh's bullet flares brightly, illuminating much of their surroundings. And then the light dies as the ground heaves beneath the Circle and the walls of the "cavern" start to roil and compress. The bullet sinks into the wall and disappears, leaving only an incredibly foul smell. Then the circle's ears are assaulted by a sound so loud they can't actually hear it!
ST LOUD NOISES MAKE PAIN!
Myrrh hisses and clutches his ears!
Corve was already holding his ears, and so he presses his hands tightly against them, his feet shifting and moving as he attempts to keep his balance in the roiling mass of internal flesh and odd behemoth-instestin digestive juices (if that is indeed what they are), occasionally using the "wall" for support.
Xar 's pupils contract to slits, and he presses hands and wings to the sides of his head where what pass for ears lie. He digs the talons of his feet into the mass, balancing, small twitches of his wings keeping his balance and shielding him from the spray
ST As the sound fades, everyone but Carmine is fairly deaf, especially poor Corve. Covering his ears seems to have, in some strange way, only made it worse because now he's driven his fingernails into the sides of his head resulting in some fairly painful wounds. Everyone else hears a horrible resounding ring that they can't clear away.
ST And so, only Carmine is aware of what happens next.
Xar blinks, and shakes his saurine head several times, trying to get the ringing out of his ears
Corve groans, trying to stay on his feet as the ringing sound pierces his brain. He lets out a sound that is very reminiscent to "Graaaah..."
Myrrh eventualy stops holding his ears and thinks for a moment...oh not again..."I think i've gone deaf again! That was worse than that damn air warning prototype!" Wiggles a finger in his ears, trying to see if he can get any life back into them.
Carmine picks herself up, shaking her head "...Did you understand what it just said?"
Xar looks at the others, they seem to be talking, but... he can't hear them. "Rrrr RR???"
Corve looks around, and can vaguely see Carmine's lips moving... he shakes his head and pokes at his ears. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU. I THINK IT DEAFENED ME!"
Carmine "Quiet down!" Carmine scowls, then suddenly looks at Corve concerned and runs over to his side
Myrrh "WHAT?"
Corve doesn't understand her, but it hurts, so he's not all that concerned about understanding her at the moment. "Ah... FUCK.... IT HURTS..." His hands are on his head, holding it painfully.
Myrrh "Xar! Corve! Carmine! Are you guys alright?" Stumbles around checking on Xar and the others.
Xar walks over to where the hole in the behemoth was, inspecting it
Corve looks at his best friend, shaking his head again. "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
Xar waves to show he's fine. Wonders if any of them known sign language.
Xar makes a few signs in Guild Cant, ::Do you understand?::
Corve looks at Xar, bewildered.
Carmine looks at Xar's hand gestures, mystified.
Xar sighs a bit. They're all so lingually impaired.
Corve painfully moves, leaning his forehead on Carmine's shoulder and hissing against his pain, his hands on his ears trying to make the unadultered pain -go away.-
ST The place where the bullet struck the wall is now impossible to locate. There's no sign at all the bullet struck, aside from the same foul, horrible smell.
ST Slowly, slowly, Myrrh's hearing seems to be coming back. He must be building up a tolerance to deafness.
Xar signs, ::nevermind:: and goes back to trying to discover where the hole was... it may be weakened there. The stench is nearly as deafening to his nose as the sound was to his ears, but it seems to be coming from...there...
Carmine concentrates on corve, pushing a little sunlight into him, so that he heals faster, to try and take his pain away sooner.
Myrrh "Ahhh that's much better...I think..."
Myrrh "Someone say something."
Carmine "...Myrrh?"
Myrrh "Carmine!"
Corve groans painfully, curling into Carmine's hands, the warmth of her magic soothing, but not doing much to immediately sooth the immense pain of being deafened in such a manner.
Myrrh "How's Corve?" Glances down at him.
Carmine "He seems in so much pain..." she says, worried. "And the thing...it said something. But I have no idea what.."
Myrrh "I'm sure he'll be back up in no time...however I don't think we should try shooting it again..."
Xar "It said what?" Xar's attention comes back to the moaning pile of humans.
Corve feels a little better after a short time, but the ringing won't go away. He sticks his fingers in his ears and wiggles them around in vain, knowing it doesn't help, but not being able to think of anything else. "FUCK..." He still can't control his voice without his heargin's regulation.
Corve hearing**
Carmine "Something ...! It sounded ... odd."
Myrrh "Hmmm..."
Xar "Can you repeat the sounds?"
ST Xar's hearing, too, is starting to come back.
Xar is basically ignoring the pain in his ears, being a macho sort of lizard. and also still made of stone.
Carmine does her best to repeat the alien sounds, enunciating them as best as she remembers.
Myrrh "Still...I didn't hear much of it. Just feel it. I think it's in the high range of noise."
Myrrh "Like a dog whistle."
Myrrh tries to make out Carmines attempt at behemoth language.
Xar filters Carmine's mouth-noises through his comprehensive set of languages he knows, comparing the vowel sounds first, to narrow it down, then the way they are strung together with the consonents, the length and distribution of words through the...sort of phrase she speaks.
Xar speaks, finally. "Old Realm, it spoke. It says... we go where we are not allowed. It is not happy with us, and we should not hurt it more."
Corve simply leans on Carmine slightly. Most of the real pain is gone by now, but the ringing is still harsh and bothersome, and he can't hear a word they're saying. Instead of continuing to talk in vain (since he's probably screaming, he deduces) he simply remains silent. Hopefully his friends will figure something out.
Myrrh "Well atleast we hurt it..."
Carmine kisses his cheek and helps him walk
Carmine "That doesn't help us get out."
ST Even more slowly then anyone else, Corve starts to hear things again. Well, things that people are actually saying. Not those things that the people he arrests say they hear. At least, he hopes he's hearing what his friends are saying. Really, he's not sure.
Xar "It might let us out now that we have hurt it. But is that what we wish?"
Corve raises his eyes to look around as he hears... something. Voices? His friends'? Unsure. "I... think..." he says, slowly, trying to regulate the volume of his voice. "... that I'm starting to hear again..." Unfortunately, his attempt to regulate his voice makes him whisper, so only Carmine is likely to hear him.
Myrrh "It might. Or it might just collapse things on us. I still don't understand why they give it things...it doesn't seem to give them anything in return."
Xar "It does not destroy them, in return."
Xar turns, seeking the source of the scent he notices.. "There is some one. Human."
Carmine "Good." She kisses him.
Myrrh "But how can it do that? it's stuck here in the rock...well maybe it's one of his brides?"
Xar points in the direction of the scent.
Carmine "Let's go then."
Corve looks up, wondering where they're going. He doesn't argue though, putting his rifle in its holster and walking with Carmine, hand clasping hers.
ST It's not long before, following Xar's nose through the twists, turns and tunnels of the Behemoth's bowels that the Circle finds the source of the human-smell Xar was following. Fairly soon Xar and then the rest can smell smoke and even burning meat. Mmm. Meat.
Xar readies his weaponry, crystalline smashfist and Unforseen Advantage. His stony tail is soon covered in a thin layer of gold, enhancing the clubbed tip.
Myrrh keeps his rifle at the ready...not sure if he can shoot in close spaces but can atleast smack them a good one with the butt.
Carmine sniffs "What's that smell?"
Xar "Meat. Dinner."
Corve sniffs a little himself. "That's... disturbing," he murmurs to Carmine, even though he can't really understand more than a few syllables yet.
Myrrh "Well I just hope it's a pig or something...ready to check?"
Xar nods, and moves forward.
Carmine moves forward too, pushign corve behind her
Ragged Man? steps out from behind an outcropping of gut where he was hidden previously. Wielding a club made from...well that sure looks like a femur tied to a mandible...by tendons...and wearing...well, nothing, he's incredibly thin. Almost all of his bones can be seen and he looks about ready to expire at any moment. His mat of hideously tanged hair likely weighs more then the rest of him.
Corve blinks. He scowls a little and slinks forward again, looking at whatever it is over Carmine's shoulder, his hand resting on her other one.
Ragged Man? "Halt!"
Corve "What?"
Xar halts, mostly out of curiosity
Carmine eyes him oddly "Who are you?"
Corve manages to actually understand the word a few seconds late, for some odd reason, and raises a brow. Carmine he can make out now... he shakes his head to clear his thoughts, and looks at the man. But he doesn't say anything.
Myrrh glances at the poor man..."How did you wind up down here?!"
Ragged Man? peers at Carmine, a hungry look in his eyes. He licks his lips. "Am Face-Eater. You my wife!"
Xar snorts
Carmine "I am NOT your wife." Eminence flashes to her hand.
Corve raises a brow, unholstering his rifle and aiming it at the man. "Like hell she is."
Xar "Calm, he thinks we are bringing the sacrifice."
Xar holds up his hand. "He does not know."
Face Eater? looks between the members of the group. "Why your food talking?"
Corve blinks. "He's seriously asking for it..."
Carmine "I am not your food either!"
Corve "I think he meant us, honey."
Myrrh "A crazy cannibal in the guys of a gigantic cursed monster...fantastic. Why is it this adventure doesn't involve ravishing high priestesses?"
Myrrh "How long have you been here?"
Face Eater? "Not you, wife! Food!" waves femur-club at Xar*
Carmine "Hmpf! I won't let you eat Xar either!"
Corve snorts. "You're going to try to eat a stone Dragon King? Man, you must have an iron stomach..."
Xar is simply amused.
Xar "I heard you had a high priestess after you, Myrrh."
Corve "Hey, Xar, let him take a bite. I want to see how many teeth he has left afterwards."
Xar offers the man his arm, the one not covered by the smashfist.
Xar "You will eat me?"
Face Eater? smashes the arm with the femur-club!!!
Myrrh "Oh no, beware his mighty bone club..."
Xar makes no movement to deny him his blow, remaining stolidly in place. His arm does not even move upon impact.
Corve snorts a little, trying not to laugh too much at the poor skinny man.
Face Eater? howls in anger as the mandible breaks off his femur, leaving him with only a femur. "Food break club!"
Myrrh "Right, listen buddy what do you know about the big thing you've been living in?"
Xar "I will make you a new one."
Corve "Is it just me, or does anyone else think he's ignoring any type of intelligent communication?"
Face Eater? leaps atop Xar and starts battering the Dragon-King with his femur, failing to do any damage at all. After a few strikes, the femur breaks and the starving, emaciated man is reduced to battering at the Dragon-King's stony hide with his fists, rendering them bloody in short order.
Xar gently pries the man off of him, holding his bloodied fists in claws that dwarf them easily.
Corve looks at the poor man, beginning to pity him even though he wants to make his friend food and his lover a wife. "Umm..."
Carmine "Stop that...!"
Face Eater? starts crying.
Face Eater? stops, looking at Carmine. "Wife mean!:"
Myrrh "Where are your other wives?"
Xar "Do you have food for him?" He looks at the others, pity in his eyes.
Corve growls, pity slightly subsiding. "She's -not your wife!-" He's seriously thinking about just shooting the man and putting him out of his misery.
Myrrh "I have some rations..."
Myrrh "Always come prepared! Although I didn't plan on going delving into a giant monster..."
Myrrh takes out some trail rations and hands a packet of them to the emaciated man.
Corve doesn't want to feed the cannibal.
Carmine "I'm not your wife!" she restates, with more vigor, her eyes flashing with all the fury of the dawn.
Face Eater? sniffs at the food..sniffs at Myrrh. Attempts to bite Myrrh's forearm.
Xar "We are not wife, or food, Face-Eater. We are here to talk to your master."
Myrrh "Heeeeyyy!! Watch it!"
Xar pulls him away from Myrrh's arm, and admonishes him. "Bad Face-Eater! Bad!"
Face Eater? is unable to sink his teeth in Myrrh's fleshy arm, saddly.
Myrrh "Hmph. No wonder he went crazy..."
Corve "If he tries that again, I'm shooting him." It's a matter-of-fact statement.
Myrrh puts the rations away. "Well if you don't want any food you're going to be going hungry because you aren't going to be getting any more people dumped down here."
Myrrh "Wait...YOU take all the brides?"
Corve snorts. "Poor girls. Not even a handsome cannibal..."
Face Eater? looks confused. "No brides. Only wife!" Looks at Carmine longingly.
Myrrh "So you haven't seen any other women running around down here
Myrrh ?"
Corve raises a brow and lifts Judging Thunder up, aiming straight at the man's face. "I swear by the Sun if you call her your wife again I'm going to make you a headless cannibal."
Xar "Corve," he says, admonishingly, "He does not have words for what we are. Remember the other, Carmine? He had few words, too."
Face Eater? glares at Corve with little hate-filled eyes. "No other wives."
Corve "Then you're a single bachelor, got it?"
Myrrh "Hm..."
Myrrh "What do you know about this place?"
Corve tilts his eyes at Xar and snorts a little, finally lowering the rifle down just a little. Last thing he needs is to have some emaciated cannibal want to take Carmine for a wife while they're inside some gigantic behemoth's stomach.
Face Eater? "Home. This face-eater's home! You not take Face-Eater's home!"
Myrrh "We don't want your home!"
Xar "We need to go on. We waste time here."
Myrrh sighs. "Alright let's go. Last thing we need is to play twenty questions with a mad cannibal."
Corve ponders. "He may have some information though. I say we take him with us..."
Corve "Not conscious. But..."
Xar "I have the rope. I will hold him, you can tie him. It is easier for fingers than claws."
Carmine "Why don't we just ask him here? What can he tell us that will be useful when we escape?"
Myrrh "Because I like the idea of him taking the High priestess for a wife?"
Myrrh "Besides we can ask him about things as we go if we have him tied up."
Corve snickers at Myrrh. "Because, love," he says to Carmine. "He's more likely to actually mention something if he's in a situation that warrants it. We don't know what to -ask.-"
Xar holds him out, twisting his arms behind his back.
Corve grabs the rope and starts to tie the skinny cannibal up nice and tight, arms and legs together, arms behind his back.
Face Eater? writhes and twists, trying to escape. "No! NO!"
Face Eater? "Let Face-Eater go!!"
Corve rolls his eyes. "Oh, shut up, you flesh-eating idiot," he mutters.
Xar hosts the cannibal over his shoulder, and heads on further into the belly of the beast.
Myrrh "This'll be one to tell the wife about..." Sighs and leaves after Xar.
Face Eater? struggles against his ropes, banging against Xar's back.
Corve looks at Carmine and kisses her cheek softly before moving after Myrrh and Xar. "Let's get the hell out of this thing."
Xar ignores the man, except for the minor effort it takes to keep him where he's been put.
Xar "I thought we were to kill it?"
Carmine "We need to get out first..."
Corve "Obviously attacking it from the inside isn't going to be much help, if we keep going deaf everytime we shoot it."
Xar "No, but it will be impossible to attack from the outside. You saw what happened to the bullet."
Face Eater? "Stop! Stop! Let Face-Eater go! Face-Eater needs to leave! STOP!!!!"
Face Eater? struggles violently!!
Myrrh "Leave?"
Myrrh glances at the struggling man confused. "Why would you need to leave?"
Xar breaks a feather, and scowls.
Corve lifts a hand and points up ahead. "Isn't that the creature that you saw with Xar before?!" he asks Carmine, flicking Judging Thunder up and aiming.
Xar "I... have a bad feeling...about this."
Carmine "What, where?"
Myrrh "I think we might be getting closer to it's center...or atleast I hope so. This smell is horrible."
Xar narrows his eyes, feather crest rising, "Ahead. I smell it. There is something dangerous ahead."
Xar "What creature?" he looks where Corve points
Corve points some more.
Carmine kisses Corve's cheek "He's not there. There's nothing there"
Corve blinks. "But... I'm serious... it looks just like you described it..." He can't possibly be going insane.
Corve "Fuck. It ran away... ugh."
Myrrh looks where corve is pointing.
Myrrh "If you say so. Weird. I don't know how he made it past the cave in..."
Xar "I see nothing. But did it run forward or back?"
Corve sighs. At least Myrrh believes him. "Come on, let's keep going..."
Face Eater? struggle!
Myrrh "Wait set him down a moment...why is it suddenly so important you have to leave?"
Xar obliges, but keeps him from running.
Face Eater? "You capture Face-Eater! Take him bad places!"
Myrrh "Why is this a bad place?"
Face Eater? "Monster!"
Corve watches the man, raising a brow at the claim of 'monster!' "What monster?"
Face Eater? makes incomprehensible gestures. "big monster!"
Myrrh "A monster hmmm? What does it look like?"
Face Eater? makes gurgling noises and more gestures.
Xar "Are you Food to the monster?"
Face Eater? nods.
Xar "What food does it not eat?"
Face Eater? more gurgling.
Myrrh "...well I don't think he worked on his language skills while he was down here..."
Corve snorts. "You think? Come on. Let's keep going--frankly, whatever he's afraid of is probably not worse than what we're after."
Myrrh "Well atleast we know it's a monster..."
Myrrh follows the group, keeping an eye out for their snailman friend that ran from Corve.
Corve continues walking, keeping his rifle up until something happens.
Carmine walks forward, Eminence ready
Face Eater? Very suddenly the walls of the cavern collapse and the entire circle, plus Face Eater, is flattened to the floor by massive folds of...wall.
ST The walls feel a lot more moist and wet then they did previously when they're crushing the Circle to the ground and massaging them with rapid pulsating waves of movement that shove the unwilling circle towards...well that looks like a sphincter, really.
Myrrh "Oh god I should have stayed at home..."
Corve struggles against the falling wall, buckling under the weight and pulling Carmine near him, grunting against the weight. "FUCK. WE'RE BEING EATEN!"
Xar extends his armor-strengthened wings in a curve around them, muscles bulge as he braces his clawed hands upwards, and plants himself sturdily, forming a cave of space, holding them up as a pillar of stone.
Carmine stabs Eminence into the floor, forcing it in, refusing to let herself be dragged any further.
Corve aims at the sphincter. "Everybody hold on to something!" he screams, one hand holding on to Carmine for dear life, while the other aims Judging Thunder directly at the creature's gruesome organ.
Myrrh "Well...you did say you wanted out of the thing..."
Xar grunts, and falls to one knee as the walls of the behemoth crush him, then collapses beneath its weight
Xar lashes out with his tail, not finding it difficult to find part to strike, and drives his claws into the flesh beneath him, snarling.
Corve holds on to Carmine tightly as he looks around groggly. "MYRRH, SHOOT IT... THUNDER'S NOT DOING ANYTHING!"
ST Despite Xar's efforts, he finds himself behind driven towards the sphincter faster than any of the others, possibly because he is bigger or maybe because he's being more aggressive. Or maybe because he's made of stone at the moment. But whatever, he is quickly being enveloped by the elastic muscles of the sphincter and pulled through.
Xar decides - the hell with this! and pushes himself through faster, needing to get into an area where he can spread his wings again
Myrrh "Oh this is gonna be smelly..." Struggles against the wall and takes aim at the creatures...organ. Struggling against the slimy fillia he flips a large switch on the essence line. He lines up his shot and channels his essence through the gun, sending a hail of bullets towards the sphincter!
Corve closes his eyes as Xar is swallowed, and simply sighs, holding onto Carmine tightly and hoping Myrrh's shot doesn't damage Xar in any way.
Xar pulls himself the rest of the way through the ring of muscles, and shakes the goo off, flexing his wings, and clinging to the wall next to the sphincter, he waits for the next person to come through so he can grab them.
Myrrh seeing Xar clear he opens fire!
ST It doesn't seem to matter that Myrrh's shots fail to do much damage. They have a drastic effect. Maybe it was the heat or the light or the impact, but the sphincter flexes shut for a moment, then relaxes and opens wide, like a scream. The screaming, somewhat bloody sphincter swallows the other three members of the circle, letting them fall through into the next chamber!
Corve falls, wrapping his arm around his girlfriend, holding her waist tight as they fall, his other hand holding Judging Thunder tight against his ribs. "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
Xar , prepared for this, snags them as they fall! He is surprised at how fast they all pile through, but clings with his feet, and grabs them, one in each hand, the last in his teeth
ST the first thing through the sphincter is not a welcome sight. Because that first thing the circle sees is a cavern. A massive, incredibly huge cavern of...mucus-coated flesh that heaves and roils in undulating uglyness. And nestled bellow the sphincter in a hollow of the massive cave is a fair-sized pool of what looks like water.
ST And in the water swim small...things. Gathering some of those...things are two nude women and a nude man, much better fed then the unconcious Face-Eater tied to Xar's back. They don't look up as the sphincter admits the Circle to their home. For this IS their home, as evidenced by the five fleshy tents of various sizes and the general appearance of a homey little village.
ST Inside the belly of a behemoth.
Carmine "....thank you Xar" Carmine exclaims in surprise as the stoney claw snags her, hauling Corve up with her
Xar 's teeth snap in mid-air, right where Myrrh had been a second before, and he curses.
Corve nods a little bit, looking around as he climbs down from Xar's arm. "Yeah, thanks," he murmurs, walking around the Dragon King to look at the... people.
Corve **
Corve is hanging from Xar, looking down at the far away floor... and the people. "Yes... thank you, Xar. Damn."
Myrrh lands on Xar's stoney wing, looking rather unsuprised by the massive cave...or the huge plumet he might have taken. "Thank you Xar..." He wobbles slightly but seems well situated for the moment.
Myrrh "So is this where it sends it's waste..."
Carmine "Are those ... people down there?"
Xar looks at myrrh, surprised, then smiles. "You are welcome. This is, I think, the stomach."
Myrrh "Well I guess ol' face eater isn't the only one...although I wonder if they're more sane..."
Corve nods slightly. "Probably. God, I'm sick of being inside this thing. You think you can get us down there safely, Xar?"
Xar "Hmmm. There is no place to land."
Myrrh "Well I don't know if we should go down into the water..."
Corve points with one hand towards the people. "How about where they are?"
Xar "I do not trust the water. They are in it."
Corve sighs for a moment. "Well, we can't simply hang here for the rest of eternity..."
Xar "Hmmm.. hang on." He spots some land poking through above the water, choosing the highest point, he spirals down, and lands on it.
Carmine leaps down from Xar's claw
Corve gets off Xar's arm and steps onto the wet ground, shrugging. "Better." He burns brightly in the cave, his anima flaring viciously as he looks at the people in there.
ST The people have, of course, by now noticed their visitors and retreated into their mucus-covered tents.
Corve holsters Judging Thunder and looks at his companions. "Let's go ask some questions, hmm?" He starts to head towards the tents.
Myrrh carefuly gets down off of Xar, don't want to get crushed to death by some strange tooth trap. "Let's hope these walls don't try to crush us.."
Xar follows behind
ST The people remain hidden in their tents, which look sturdy and made of some sort of flesh, possibly torn from the walls of the cavern/
Corve approaches one of the tents slowly, and stops in front of whatever passes for an entrance. Then he taps it, making the... flesh... wobble. "Come on out. We just want to talk."
ST A voice comes from inside, male. "Who are you?"
Corve raises a brow. "My name is Corve. Please, come outside. We won't hurt you if you don't attack us."
Carmine "I am Carmine."
Man steps out of the tent, looking around warrily. Unlike Face-Eater he looks...civilized. He is fairly clean. Thin, but not emaciated like the mad cannibal. His limbs and torso are muscled and he's apparently shaved off all his body hair except for a brown topknot. He is just as lacking in clothes as the cannibal, despite their other differences. "What do you want?"
Carmine can't help but look. "...We want to get out of here."
Corve looks at Carmine for a moment and grimaces comically. "What she said."
Man "So does everyone. You can't. It won't let you."
Myrrh "Well then we'll have to kill it..."
Man gives a hollow laugh. "How?"
Xar "Has anyone hurt it before, that you have heard?"
Myrrh "Well we've been doing pretty good making it scream in pain so far..."
Man waves his hand. "Yeah, it'll scream. But that's all it does. It never gets really hurt. It doesn't ever DIE. I've lived here all my life."
Xar "Were you born here?"
Man nods.
Xar "What do you eat?"
Corve remains silent, looking at the man and crossing his arms slowly.
Man "Fish."
Man waves at the pool.
Corve finally speaks again. "What's the point of all this?"
Man looks confused. "What?"
Corve "Keeping people in this beast. What's the point of it? Why are you here?"
Man "It eats us, of course."
Corve sighs. "Must eat really slowly."
Man "Oh, we're not being eaten now*."
Man "Every so often, it will pick someone in here and eat them. They'll get taken by the belly-bats."
Carmine "...belly-bats?"
Corve tries not to snort. "That's... interesting. We'll, we don't plan on being eaten, so..."
Man nods. "Yes. They come from the other end of the belly and swoop down, pick up the victim and carry him off."
Carmine "Hmmm. We need to go there then."
Man lowers his voice "It's always a him. Always. Once you father a baby, they come."
Xar "Are any having babies soon?"
Corve raises a brow and looks at the man. "Ever thought about not fathering any babies?" It's simple logic, really. Then again, he supposes they can't help it. Everyone gets desperate...
Man "No, you don't. You need to stay away from there!" Glares at Xar and Corve. "No! I'm staying safe!"
Myrrh "Quite the monsterous setup he's got here...going to be fun blowing his brain up."
Corve rolls his eyes and looks at his friends. "Screw this. Let's go see these belly-bats."
Xar "Why stay away? The bat goes out from there."
Man "And they go back there! There's where you get eaten!"
Corve "So? We're not getting out back through where we came in."
Myrrh "We're a bit tougher than your average person living all their life on fish..."
Xar "Then they will die there."
Carmine nods! "Lets go!"
Man shakes his head at the Circle. "You're all crazy. Don't you understand? This beast is smart enough to farm us to eat! It'll just eat you!"
Xar "What about the brides?"
Corve looks at the man. "You're welcome to grow some balls and use them for something other than suicidal reproduction any time now," he says, wrapping an arm around Carmine's waist and walking with her into the bowels of the beast.
Man snarls at Corve "Fine for you to say! You haven't seen your friends get carried off by belly-bats!"
Myrrh "Well then tell your friends to gather
Myrrh We're going to kill the beast."
Corve smiles and waves his rifle dismissively. "No, but I've been eaten by a gigantic monster, slashed up by a death-dealing pirate, made friends with a Dragon King, and seen the face of gods. Big bats are just a plus."
Xar "We will return for you when the bats are dead, if you wish."
Man snorts and goes back into his tent
Corve rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Nobody wants to help the heroes anymore. This isn't how is used to be."
Session Start: Mon Apr 24 00:00:00 2006Session Ident: #brume
Xar gathers the troops and flies off towards the bat hole!
Corve gives a little humph! when he's picked up, but grins, his rifle coming up to point directly ahead. "Drop me low once we reach them; I want to be able to move freely," he requests, loading shells into his rifle quickly.
Belly Bats? make their appearance, screeching with a hideous volume almost as bad as the sound that resulted when Myrrh shot the behemoth. Large, nearly as big as Xar, and colored a nasty puce-pink-biege the bellybats are vile, mucus-covered monstrosities with three heads and four wings. They swoop down toward the tent of the man the Circle had just been talking to...
Corve "Turn around, Xar! Turn around!"
Xar dives forward to head them off from the tent, pointing her gun-toting friends at the bat!
Corve gives those bats something to think about, Judging Thunder clicking into silent mode as he smiles. "Low, Xar, low." Before anything changes, however, he lets out a simple shot, testing the creatures' defenses with a sharp shot of his rifle.
Belly Bats? shriek and scatter as one of their number, formerly six, explodes in a cloud of nasty offal.
Xar does as Corve suggests, diving in low. Inhaling mightily, he belches forth a gout of red-hot flame, aiming for the wings of the beasts.
Corve slides free from the Dragon King's arm and drops to the ground, Essence flaring around, his anima still burning bright as he catches himself safely and then lifts his rifle again, aiming towards the bats.
Myrrh steadies himself on Xar's back and waits, then jumps off for the ground and rolls, he winds up on his back facing the flock of bellybats! He takes careful aim at the scattering bats and opens fire!
Carmine As Xar rises from his dive, after breathing fire at the now screaming bat, Carmine leaps forward using his momentum to launch her at another of the flying bats, holding Eminance in two hands as she hurtles past the bat, opening it in two.
Belly Bats? are reduced to two by Carmine's sword, Xar's flaming burp and Myrrh's bullets! And one of those two is in horrible pain, flailing around with half a wing missing.
Corve seeing as how each of his companions destroy a bat each, he spins on the ground, his rifle cocking upwards in an arc, the silent spin of the bullets flickering out as he bursts with another flare of Essence, the first shot to the one not attacked at all, and the second to the wounded one. He smiles as the bullets rip through the air at his victims.
Belly Bats? explode in bursts of guts and nasty, sending the horrible remains falling down on the man's tent. And Corve, of course.
Corve rolls to the side to avoid the majority of the bat-scum, slapping away parts of them from his coat as he flips his rifle over his shoulder and holsters it. "Hey, inside the tent... you still scared or you want to come out and help?"
Xar "Food, for you." Xar lands, and gestures to the crisped and mangled bats.
ST sticks his head out "What happened?!" He looks terrified.
Myrrh "We killed the infamous bellybats."
Carmine runs lightly over to Corve's side "We dealt with the belly bats"
Man stares. "What?"
Xar hands him a wing.
Corve "We killed..." he counts with a finger at the mangled corpses. "Six of them." He kisses Carmine as she comes running over, grinning.
Man stares. "Who were they coming for?!"
Corve "Who cares?"
Myrrh "Us...I think."
Xar shrugs. "We hurt the beast. The bats might have come for us. And these two have mated before." he gestures to Carmine and Corve.
Myrrh "Carmine's pregnant?"
Myrrh gawks at Corve and Carmine.
Carmine "...I'm ...pregnant?"
Corve looks at Carmine and blinks. "Huh... umm... that's..." he goes quiet, raising an eyebrow at his lover.
Xar "I cannot tell, but that is what mating is for."
Man looks at Carmine. "She doesn't look pregnant."
Corve looks at her belly. "I hope not..." and then he catches himself and coughs. "... I mean, not that that would be a bad thing, -usually,- but given the circumstances of our situation and... umm..." he scratches his head a little, wincing.
Myrrh "You should have asked if she had heard of maiden's tea..."
Myrrh grins and slugs Corve in the shoulder playfuly. "I'm sure Sun will be thrilled!"
Xar "Mmmm. Is there anyone else in the village it could have been?"
Corve snarls at Myrrh defensively. "Hey... I..." he starts, and then looks at Carmine, giving her a small smile...
Man shakes his head. "We're all very careful."
Myrrh "Well there are some tests i'm sure! We'll see a healer on our way out. Right now we have a giant god forsaken abomination before the eyes of the sun to kill."
Carmine settles for an evil glare at Myrrh, as he teases corve, then a kiss for corve, then a big smile at Myrrh as he meantions killing an abomination.
Man "You could ask Thiv. He lives on the other side of the pool, in the big brown tent. He's our healer."
Corve blinks a little at the man. "I think... that might be a good idea." He looks at Carmine. "Just to... make sure... of whatever..." If she's pregnant, then things change. A lot. If she thought he was protective before...
Xar "The Chosen are resilient. She will be fine, as will the baby if there is one, for many months."
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