Oct 26 13:40:29 106 PA - Seb and Cel vs Monsters
From Chronicles
Kingsdale - Dregtown Junkyard
If one is searching for a pile of junk, they have found the mother lode. For many years, until the dregs got 'bad' this was where the non-organic waste of Kingsdale was dumped. As such, it an absolutely monolithic pile that occupies the space of several city blocks. One can find almost anything here, providing they are trying to find it so decayed it is worthless. Off to the west is a long line of rusted cars and trucks, of no use to anyone. Most look like they will collapse into dust if one breathes on them. They are piled on top of each other six or seven times high. In other places, there is simply just massive piles of -junk-. Stoves, refigerators, ancient rusted tools, building supplies, television sets.. you name it, if it is junk it is here. Mind you, it is pretty much junk as it has been exposed to the weather for years. The actual 'Junkyard' itself is surrounded by a fifteen foot concrete wall that barely serves to keep it contained, and a set of wrought iron gates at the front have been long broken open. Roughly in the middle sits the gutted and graffiti-laden remains of the electromagnetic crane that used to move all of this stuff around. People still sometimes use this place, and near the entrance there are several smaller piles where people of the dregs take their garbage. Not surprisingly, the area stinks. Nobody goes into the deep junkyard either, where there are rumors of vampires, piles of steel that move on their own and even worse. Indeed, if one actually climbed one of the piles near to the entrance they would see that well in the back of the junkyard there is a large crater that is filled with rusty, brackish water too.... and that the twisted tangles of metal and plastic are even bigger and more decayed than in front.
It's another nice, shiny day in dregtown where everyone is happy, holds hands and sings songs. No? ... Alistair is near the junkyard but not quite in it, waiting on something, looking in. Or perhaps he's bored. Bored with a sword strapped to his back, no less.
Sebastien walks in on foot. The young knight's dressed in that silly, ancient-looking armor of his, battered and scuffed from a hundred small wars with patches of shiny plate overlapping scored bits sitting next to something with teeth marks, yet it all looks serviceable and shined to a faint glow. A rich blue cloak hangs from his shoulders, with sword hilts poking from beneath as the arrayed scrap steel crunches beneath iron boots. "You said you had a proposition," Sebastien notes in a canned-sounding voice. "So Lucky, I wonder; which of us should be on one knee for this question?"
Alistair turns his head to look at Sebastien. "I had questions" Alistair replies, blinking his eyes at Sebastien, and blushing faintly. "However, if you wish to be attacked by slimy tentacles, you should be the one kneeling. Do you know anything about Madhaven, or the things in here that take over your body, Sir?" the latter all asked with a serious expression.
"Madhaven..." Sebastien replies softly, frowning. "That is ... East, non? Old New York, or something like this? Katsumi was from there, but she did not speak of it at length. I wonder if she is there now?" The young knight's head tilts, as if it doesn't matter, though his voice betrays him. A waver, telling at the end. She may be the one he never quite got over. After a long moment's thought, Sebastien reaches to clap Alistair on the shoulder and job into the junkyard, calling back, "As for here, I am also in the dark! I come for rumors from the hospital; that there is something so nightmareish that none dare tread. Well, that may as well be a pile of catnip for a curious pussy cat like me."
Though the junkyard might not generally be Celaeno's premier place for hanging around, talk of big evil things seem to have managed to bring her out of whatever reclusion she's been in for the past few months. Her clothing appearing to be rather normal street wear, except for the two swords hanging on her left hip, and the mace on her right. As she approaches the area in general, she initially holds her distance, skirting around the edges of the two men, frowning to herself.
Alistair exhales a sigh as he's clapped on the back, having listened with interested up to now. "But ... I have to go there with Cali" he explains, frowning faintly. "Oh - this? here all I have seen is a bunch of tentacles that ... slime you!" he makes a face, perhaps speaking of experience.
"Self-lubricating tentacles?" Sebastien calls back, laughing. "No wonder the gangs fear to tread here -- their manhood is in question. Aha!" The young knight spies a set of feminine curves, even if he can't quite make out Celaeno's identity. "Here we are. Someone who may appreciate Kingsdale's newest tourist attraction."
As one pair of eyes turn Celaeno's way she sighs, beginning a slow cross to the two as they discuss. One thumb hooked over the hilt of one of her swords her right hand raises in an exaggerated wave, "Hello, hello," she calls unexcitedly, giving a bored series of glances around the place. "No big scary monsters, hm?"
"Something like that" says Alistair, nodding his head, his answer to the question without humor. At the mention of big scary monsters, however, he points to Sebastien. "I do not think he has tentacles however. Hello Miss Cel" he greets her pleasantly. "Would you happen to know anything about Madhaven?"
Sebastien finds a faint open space to cartwheel as the question of monsters is asked, making it look easy in his plate mail. Well, relatively. It wasn't a very fast cartwheel. Reaching for the ground, Sebastien gathers up a broken shard of rebar to throw it atop a mound of what looks like the remains of an apartment complex, done flat and waferlike, and he runs up a jutting fragment of concrete to gain some altitude and peer through the junkyard from a vantage point five feet up. "When we meet this beast," Sebastian asks, "is it that we declare ourselves Mormons or vacuum salesmen?"
Inside the junk yard a flock of crows noisily scavenge the mounds for all forms of organic substance. A good portion scatter at the tossed iron rod, cawing with annoyance as the lose their claim on their finds. The rebar causes a small cascade of debris down the mound. Deeper in the junkyard a similar but larger cascade settles.
"Never been, only heard the name in passing," Celaeno responds to the question, skipping any further pleasantries. With one more heavy sigh, she drops her head slightly and begins her own walk into the junkyard. "I think it'd be a bit more fun to opt as repo men. Bastard's probably got all sorts of outstanding debts around town. Who knows? We might make off with an old beater," she calls over, moving only vaguely in the same direction as Sebastien - though sticking to the ground for the moment.
"I heard that these things keep the really, really bad things away" Alistair points out after considering the jovial questions for a few moments. "That looks familiar" he says, looking to the crows and derbis that's coming down. "I need to find out about Madhaven ... " he murmurs.
"Why?" Sebastien calls back. Drawing free one of his swords, the young knight runs down the opposite side of the pile and is lost momentarily to sight. His voice echos back through the debris, "Why is it you *must* travel to the ends of the earth, across Coalition territory, into the realm of the slavers, passing wars and evil kingdoms and braving a place known as a haven to the insane? What is it that drives you to such ends with your lovely woman? What if your luck runs out?" Remaining generally lethargic about the area at large, Celaeno moves to the mouth of one of the trash-alleys as the crows settle and the junk continues to depreciate. "To be fair, it's only two wars that he'd be passing. Thats barely even plural," she calls over her shoulder.
"Cali had to take this job, and I'm not letting her go alone ... so I need to find out what trouble there will be on the way and what trouble there will be on site. And maybe some help too - Miss Tirzah is also coming" Alistair replies, "and I think Cali would pay for help - as for me, Mr. Sebastien, I think you are asking a question you know the answer to" he looks over towards Celaeno as well, blinking his eyes.
In a nearly singsong voice, Sebastien calls, "Salut petit oiseau! Je vous vois! Venez pour un bonbon!" The tip of a sword, bright teeth shining in the afternoon sun, passes over the crest of the hill he's disappeared behind, and the next glimpse they catch of Sebastien reveals the knight in a fighting crouch with one alien-looking blade with its odd nozzles and unfamiliar grip held in his left hand, a chainsaw with a sword hilt held in the right. He's eyeing a pile of trash before him, adding, "Ce n'est
Oh, garbage garbage everywhere, and not a monster to slay, Celaeno thinks to herself. Drawing her vibroblade into her left hand, she begins to walk down the alley, eyeing everything with a particular distaste, and growing silent.
Alistair exhales softly, shaking his head a little. He looks to where Sebastien is, and then where Celaeno is. He'll be ready to help out if necessary, though his slimy friend is not exactly what he came here for at this time.
Sebastien's singsong voice fades, his head down, and his stance is held as the junkyard grows silent. Alistair and Celaeno's footfalls crunch loudly in the afternoon sun, each bird flapping overhead an individual event. The city seems to take a collective breath and hold it, as a few seconds stretch into eternity.
Moving all the way down the alley, Celaeno giving the far side a small kick before shrugging and turning back to move to the front. "Well, as fun as standing around in a reeking garbage pit is..." she begins before deciding that any followup would be implied.
Alistair's brows hike up a little as the suspense rises. There's the sound of quick little feet as something aproaches him and a squeaky voice shouting, "Alistair!" as a little boy runs the few steps in from the street outside. "Haaa?!" yes, Alistair is surprised, and he looks down to the boy. "Matthew? Oh my god, Matthew, what are you doing here? Where's your mother?" he leans down to pick the giggling child up and proceeds to carry him outside of the junkyard.
Behind Sebastien the pile he just ran down shifts and rises as a 12 foot hulk of garbage stands behind the knight. The monstrosity lunges at the knight, tentacles sawrming and converging with clear intent.
Sebastien falls forward, dropping with swords to either side of his balled body, to first roll over his head and then, catching the earth beneath his feet, heave himself a good four feet right as a mass of garbage and tentacles slams into the ground where he once stood!
Moving with no sense of urgency despite the sudden emergence of the Creature, Celaeno walks back to the entrance of her alleyway. A brief moment passes as she watches the action, "You should probably try to move it to the open. Assuming we don't want it fleeing back into the trash," she says, flashing up body-field.
Behind Celaeno a very similar but shorter hulk emerges from the trash. Standing at 9 feet it charges after her with the same tactic as the other, tentacles swirling to reach out and capture the woman.
Alistair looks back over his shoulder, and sees the others are faring well enough - he grunts softly and continues on. Being responsible, he needs to deliver the child back to his mother - like a responsible person should. "You should never ever go into the junkyard. There are bad things there!" though the kid is looking at what's going on over Alistair's shoulder. "Ooooh."
As the knight evades the predicted ambush the trash monster turns to follow his track. its twelve foot long tentacles pursing him fluidly the group together to lash out and disarm both swords from the knight then branch out to ensnare him again.
A ton of flesh and concrete come after him, and the ground-bound would-be knight draws up those swords to flicker skillfully along the grasping maw of his doom, closing in on the ultimate reach of that giant monster with a spinning set of steel teeth and a slim longsword whose length bathes itself in flame. Yet as the being topples over him again, a writhing mass of what used to be a condo, Sebastien flies just clear of the dust cloud that races after him. "Celaeno!" he yells, "Stop being such a drunkard and hurt it already!" The young knight scrambles for purchase, flames and gnarled sword teeth chattering at the ground, and with a yell that's somewhere between terror and anger the young knight half-crouches, battering at those grasping reachers like a monkey with a drumset. Overhand, trading skill for gusto!
Her amusement is unfortunately short lived as Celaeno suddenly does her own diving roll forward and away, an annoyed "Fucking karma..." muttered under her breath as she regains her footing, squaring off and drawing her other sword as she backs into the main entryway. "Got problems of my own, and I'll have you know I'm quite sober at present," she says, her recently drawn sword beginning to glow a faint white.
At the trash alley a similar scene is unfolding with Celaeno. The tentacles dart out to knock each of her weapons away in turn then spread in another attempt to ensnare.
Rolling away from the lumbering tentacles once more, Celaeno swears at the world in general as her sword is knocked away, leaving a faint trail as it goes.
The knight's attacks back at his monster draw forth an angry wail from it as two of its tentacles are nearly severed. Again they dart out to disarm the knight but no longer does it seem interested in capture as its massive rubble encased arm swings at the knight with unnerving speed and power.
One nasty blade gone Cel's heap of trash directs its tentacles at her other twice before spreading out to try to ensnare her again.
Sebastien's getting the hang of this! The knight ducks and shoves that grasping tentacle aside with his flaming sword, catching a billowing cloud of fire as a tuft of his cloak goes up in flame, and his chainsword whirrs as he makes a hard target to catch hold of, pirouetting it about to laugh at Celaeno. "Big dumb and slo!" he calls, grinning. "Just what the doctor ord --" There's a resounding clang, and suddenly he's nowhere to be seen. Sebastien flies twelve feet horizontally, pinballing off the hood of a Bronco to land on all fours, panting. "RUN!" he yells, raising that plasma sword to fire a couple desperate bolts in the direction of the creature following Celaeno to try and give her a break as he turns to high-tail it towards the road.
Well after a few moments of parley with their respective beasts much has changed. Sebastiens armor has a good solid dent from where beast hit him full force. it could maybe survive another such blow, maybe. He is fleeing the junkyard and the creature he did slightly would doesnt seem overly keen on pursuing him. Rather it turns to watch as its smaller associate disarms and ensnares Celaeno, holding her up as it considers her hungrily.
The young knight mutters a curse as he stares at the ensuing scene. "Merde de cochon, mademoiselle, can I not take you *anywhere?* KILL ME!" Sebastien yells, taking a step forward, firing into the creature holding her. "Come and get me! I'm right here!" Fire licks from his sword once towards the creature's back, and again, doing all that he can from thirty feet away.
The monster is ignoring the knights blasts as the lightly scorch its armored hide. Even the larger one doesn't seem concerned as it shambles off with a slight grumble to burrow back into a pile. The smaller one has two tentacles free as four others hold each of the Celaeno's limbs. Lowering her down before it it take a moment to pause before retching several gallons of thick and grossly pungent slime over her torso.
With the creature drooling on her, Celaeno spends her time wrestling with the tentacles. Truly, she's not in the most enviable of positions, but one arm is free, and with it she begins trying to inch slowly away. Ineffectually.
The thing's a rock! Or wrapped in them, at least. Sebastien flips about his chain sword in a moment's thought, considering his losing situation, and utters a decisive, "FUCK!" before charging back into battle. Crisp. Clean. Classic. The curse of champions. His steel-wrapped feet pound at the packed earth as he runs back into combat, batting at a tentacle wrapping Celaeno with his plasma sword while passing her his chain weapon, letting the brilliant white spear of light replace it in his right hand. The gloves are coming off! And if Celaeno's any indication, the tunic and the britches too. Ew.
The knight's attack is easily deflected by the beasts armored forearm. Meanwhile its tentacles continue their efforts to ensnare and keep ensnared Celaeno. One of its tentacles notices she is not fleshy and pliable as a human ought to be and another slaps against her torso with testing force.
Celaeno is doing her best to breathe through gritted teeth as she struggles with the creature, trading one arm for another. The situation's not working out quite so well.
"Petit oiseau!" Sebastien chastises through gritted teeth. "You are supposed to buy" Hack! "a woman chocolat" Hack! "and flowers" Hack! "and whisper sweet nothings as you nibble" Hack! "at her ear. This tentacle business is no good!" The young knight is a blur of light and flame, aiming for that tentacle as squarely as he can. It's such a meaty, slippery target!
An air of deja vu may come over the night as he does manage to cut into the tentacle with one of his fervent slashes. Much like before the creature wails in discomfort before swinging its armored battering ram of an arm at him. As it does the tentacles continue to try and hold Celaeno.
With her situation not improving in the slightest, Celaeno decides to shift gears a little, moving to shift the sword into her free hand, before bringing the heavy thing around more as a club than a sword.
At long last! Sebastien's psi-sword winks into the ether, and his right arm reaches in to wrap around Celaeno's shoulder, yanking to try and pull her free as he breaks into a run. The young knight yells as he looks back, once, over his shoulder, "So -- lunch? Calamari?!"
Though the creature wails in pain as the tentacle is severed with a spray of thick purple blood it does not seem ready to give up the fight just yet. Its glowing yellow eyes glaring at the pair furiously as it pursues. The remaining tentacles reaching to ensnare each of them as the severed one retracts to disappear in its armored husk.
With the monster once again grabbing hold, Celaeno still dripping goo, she glances down as the struggle begins anew, noticing her sword. And without even the slightest hesitation, the chainsword drops to the ground as she reaches to pick up the glowing blade.
"You son of a ..." Sebastien speaks as Celaeno falls from the crux of his arm. Throwing himself wide, Sebastien takes four staggering steps to the right, whipping his plasma sword back for one last blast at the creature.
As another small section of the creature's husk smolders impotently its tentacles swarm by find its prey deviding past their reach. It chooses to pursue the assumedly tastier less armored female.
Okay, so the creature has its slimy purple heart set on playing, and has decided that it's fun to just grab and grab and grab. "That's okay," Celaeno says, twitching slightly as she just barely pulls her sword hand away before bringing it up in two gleaming slashes at its body.
That plasma sword falls to the earth clattering along the ground to bounce once, then wink out. Sebastien reaches across his forearms to draw free one, then another grenade, and he flicks the pins free to arm them while yelling, "Get clear, mademoiselle, this thing's going hot!" Though he has to wait, then, for an opening.
The attacks are definitly starting to show now as the rubble the creature uses for armor gradually flakes and crumbles off under the resistance to its feeding. Still much bulk left with that hough as its tentacles continue to try and detain Celaeno.
The young knight's getting desperate. Things are just not working out. Throwing the pair of grenades back into the heaps, he instinctively ducks while a pair of white blades flicker into existence, a moment before a sharp blue-green light and a concussion hit them all, with dirt raining in from overhead at the distant blasts.
Scooping up the recently dropped chainsword, Celaeno's twitching is continuing full force. The thing must really love her, because there's no way it would be worth it to have this kind of determination for a meal. The thought spurns her on to try to pry it off of her, but unfortunately, it doesn't do a whole lot.
Its hold on the female's weapon arm being reinforce the creature decides to go back to slapping its tentacles at her protection and prehaps make it feasible to finally feed on the wriggling morsel.
"Let go!" Sebastien yells, double-fisting a pair of swords as he hopes the explosions draw attention. The young man aims at that tentacle holding Celaeno, swords flashing as he tries, desperately, to make it let go.
Suddenly free, and further covered in goo, Celaeno quickly moves to recollect her loose vibroblade - why yes, a few thousand credits are worth more than a clean getaway. "Might want to grab yours if you don't want to leave it as a consolation prize," Celaeno says, wielding both swords in one final attack on the thing before moving to beat a retreat.
As another tentacle is severed and more damage done to the husk the is a rumbling from the heaps about the three as the big one returns, accompanied by a slightly smaller one at eleven feet. They growl audibly, tentacles waving but don't advance. Rather they seem to draw the attention of the smaller one which hesitates then steps back from the pair. With a moan of regret it shambles back to its apparent parents, playtime over for today.
Raising his hands, Sebastien takes three steps back. His swords twitch and skitter, sliding across the ground with a persistence that's unnatural and yet heartening. The blades flit into the air, though Sebastien doesn't bother claiming them with his hands. Rather, turning, he bolts for the exit with his swords flying to either side of his head, orbiting like a pair of large, deadly, misshapen moons.
Celaeno's retreat is rather less showy, leaving the dripping swords out of their dripping sheathes as she moves toward the exit concertedly. She practically glowers as she withdraws, any comments whatsoever made by Sebastien met with a glare and little more, until she can split to clean herself up. Dear lord she needs a shower.
