Things Reborn, Saturday Night
The other strike team... took a little more time to find their charge. In the end they located Cecil, however, within the ruins of what had once been Things Reborn.
Cecil and Foucault
Wandering down around the antique shop, the creatures that had been Cecil and Foucault slitherwalked about, looking with every eye for anything they could find - food, fun, furry clothes fire and destruction...
Jono
Jono looked more than just slightly dubious as he peered out from behind a pile of rubble that once was a building toward the slithering, blinking... bloody...
Cecil, apparently. Frankly, he was having difficulty picking out the resemblance, though he supposed if one factored in the tentacles and the large, murderous pink bird, it was really just a matter of squinting.
//Right, so, plan,// he ventured, looking back at the others that were gathered. //I draw him... ah... out...//
He kind of already was out.
//I mean, I'll grab his attention and fight where I can, try to keep his eyes off of th'rest of you?//
Bloody hell.
Khadgar
Khadgar was caught somewhere between fascination and horror by Cecil's form, and he couldn't keep from giving Jono a nervous look. "You'll be able to keep yourself safe with his attention on you?"
He'd settle for "relatively safe-ish" at this point, but he still needed to check and make sure Jono was thinking this through.
Jono
Jono's shoulders hiked up faintly.
//He can't kill me,// he replied. //He can make a mess of me, but he has to get close enough, first. I've got enough kick to keep that from happening. There's no need to worry about me.//
Okay, so really, Cecil and Foucault could tear him limb from limb, and that would be less than pleasant. But it still wouldn't kill him.
Cara
"Just try and avoid the tentacles. I've seen what you people think happens with those."
Cara, no.
Dante
"Pretty sure I saw internet porn like that once," Dante volunteered, too, because he was helpful. He shrugged. "If Starsmore wants to throw himself in front of the big tentacle monster, sure, whatever. Then we stab him."
Strategy was not his strong suit.
Khadgar
"I'm not very good at stabbing, but I have some spells that'll hurt just as much," Khadgar said. He'd also save a shield spell up his sleeve, in case Jono turned out not to be quite as indestructible as he claimed.
Jono
Ah, no faith in the indestructibility of the guy who regularly blew out his own chest and lower jaw without any outside assistance at all?
... That was fair.
Jono nodded once, and then looked back over the rubble at the wandering bosses.
//I'll make my way around him to draw his attention, then. You lot can come at him from behind once my wrappings have come off. Shouldn't be difficult to miss the signal to move. It'll involve the best fireworks I can muster. Any questions?//
Cara
"This is a terrible plan." That was a statement, not a question, Cara. "But I can't think of a better one."
Dante
Dante heaved another mighty shrug and said, "Hey, we can always just go charging in and hit him. That usually works."
Beat. "... When you're not that squishy." Khadgar kind of looked it.
He peered over the top of the rubble, squinting at Cecil. "Anyway," he said, as his sword manifested across his back, "I say we go in and get the fucker already."
Khadgar
Khadgar was... okay, he was pretty squishy, to be honest. "Let's hope he's easily distracted," he said, readying himself to be behind Dante. The sword was pretty impressive, after all.
Jono
//If he's not, then there really isn't any of Cecil left in there,// Jono replied, wincing. And then he squared his shoulders and stood. //Right, then. Let's do this.//
And before he could talk himself out of it, he darted out from behind their hidey hole and ran out into the open, moving to run around Cecil, tearing his bandages out of the way and sending up gouts of flame as he ran.
He was an idiot he was going to die this was the worst plan ever oh lord...
Cecil
Yeah, there was at least something of Cecil left.
Oo, look - shiny!
All his eyes turned to follow the flames, and he writhed over to follow them. Was this shiny thing edible? Or did it need collecting and hugging to death?
Cara
That looked like their signal. Cara drew her agiels, the bite of their magic comforting against her palms. She looked at Dante and Khadgar. "Well, try not to die."
Your inspirational speeches needed work, Cara.
Dante
Dante's weren't much better.
"Yeah, whatever."
He dashed out of cover, sword in hand. He wasn't great at the whole stealth-and-deceit bullshit anyway. Dashing forward and trying to stab the weird-ass tentacle thing in the... uh, was that a back?
Whatever. Closest thing, getting stabbed.
Khadgar
Khadgar definitely felt out of place now, not wielding any kind of weapon, but he only dwelled on that for a second before re-focusing. As he came out of cover as well, he began casting the incantation for an arcane blast, his eyes glowing blue as the spell finished and launched a bolt of energy towards Cecil's back.
Jono
You know, in hindsight, today probably would have been a great time for Jono to give those skates of Ringo's a try? Because two legs were great for a good many things, primarily running, and Jono did make a point to go running every day, but Cecil had size on his side. And many, many more legs than he did.
This plan was looking worse and worse every moment, in fact. Jono was no longer allowed to be the one to make plans.
//Think shiny thoughts, Starsmore. Distracting, shiny thoughts.//
Yeah, now he was shifting the color of his flame from yellow-orange to blue and back, and sending little bursts of fire up into the air to crackle away like fireworks. If a few happened to fly into... as close to a face as Cecil and his bird had left, just to make sure their attention stayed on him... well, all the better. Jubilee would be proud.
Cecil
Cecil followed after, curious and hungry but not deadly yet - he always had time to play with his food, and the colors were pretty!
Foucault honk/howled and flapped his wings, the wind whipping around the street as he reared up to see what was going on.
Cara
Since Dante was stabbing at the tentacles, Cara went for the chicken that was not a chicken bird thing, her agiels jabbing towards its body.
Dante
Too many tentacles. Too many tentacles.
Dante let out a frustrated growl in the back of his throat, bringing his sword down on a couple of 'em, trying to hack his way through.
Khadgar
Khadgar was definitely going to have tentacle nightmares for a while after this, and he swore under his breath at how much faster Cecil was moving than he'd imagined. This time, he called up a bolt of frost to fire at the creature, hoping the chill would slow him down.
Cecil
Hey! Those tentacles were attached, thank you very much! And there were things hurting them!
Cecil swatted at them, tentacles sweeping in all directions as a portion of his eyes focused back on the source of the hurt. Foucault whipped out with his wings, trying to bat them away.
Not all of Cecil's attention had left the shiny thing, though, and with one last swipe, he managed to catch it, raising it with a pleased noise and shaking it a bit to make more shiny colors.
Cara
Oh, that couldn't be good for Jono.
Cara stuck at Foucault with her agiels again, since that seemed to be working. "Here birdy, birdy, birdy."
Dante
Tentacles swiping his way meant Dante had to leap out of the way, somersaulting over a set of incoming tentacles. That put him closer to the squishy bits, at least, but he didn't have much of a window.
He was gonna take that window if he could at all manage it, re-manifesting Rebellion and attempting to plunge it straight into the fleshy bits of hopefully-actually-body between Cecil's tentacles.
Khadgar
Khadgar didn't want to get in much closer, especially with the tentacles flying around, but he knew there wasn't much of a choice at the moment. Darting towards Cecil, he crouched down and aimed a blast of fire where his body looked most tender. It wouldn't hurt Dante but he couldn't do anything about the burning smell, sorry folks.
Jono
Burning smell, Jonothon was used to. The burning seafood smell thing was new, but Jono had more important things to worry about, like how he was dangling upside-down by one leg, suspended by a tentacle, which was shaking him around like a ragdoll.
This was not one of his more stellar moments, no.
But Cecil might be pleased to know that shaking him that way did, in fact, cause the little shiny thing to make more colours. If it just happened to come in the form of a blast of flame aimed toward what Jono could only guess was Cecil's body, well... that seemed to be the thing to do.
Particularly when being dangled upside-down by one leg.
Cecil
Hey, now! Ow! Cecil let out a sound somewhere between a screech and a howl and did his best to smack at the things that were hurting him.
In the process, he let go of Jono, though that might not be a good thing, considering how high up he was.
Foucault flew at Cara, beating at her with his wings and honk/howling in protest.
Cara
Could Jono fly? Maybe? Cara wasn't sure. Besides, bird. That was distracting.
"Hey, wizard!" She called out, as she pressed the agiel against the nearest wing. Khadgar, Cara, his name was Khadgar. "Can we get roast poultry too?"
Dante
Yeah, Dante's efforts to stab Cecil some more had to be interrupted - again - in order for him to vault over a few tentacles. He finally touched down on one and pushed up.
Death from above, maybe?
Well, Dante was gonna try and plunge that sword in on his way down, anyway. "Keep burning him!"
Khadgar
Khadgar's first concern was Jono; thankfully, Slow Fall was one of the first spells he'd learned, so now Jono wasn't falling as much as he was floating to the ground. Then he shot off a fireball at the bird, and another one at Cecil for good measure. Somewhere, archmages were feeling stricken by his reckless mana use, but it was all worth it to see these things roasted.
Jono
And here Jono had been expecting to be smashed to a gooey pulp upon hitting the cobblestones below. He'd even had his eyes closed and everything, bracing for impact. When impact didn't happen so much as a light bump of the ground under his bottom, he cracked open one eye, blinked, and then stood and stumbled dizzily backwards, making a note to thank whoever had thrown that spell profusely later.
And, because he wasn't going to let this not-being-splattered thing go to waste, he was firing off yet another gout of flame towards Cecil. Barbecue was definitely the special of the day, today.
Cecil
HEY! Fire was not fun! HE WAS NOT FOR BARBECUING!
Cecil shook himself and whirled his tentacles around to try to squash the flames. His eyes everywhere narrowed and scowled around, looking for their source.
Foucault got off the ground and started trying to peck at Cara with his huge, curved beak.
Cara
Cara twisted out of the path of the beak, swinging her agiels around to rap against it, their shriek rising to an even higher pitch. "Bad murderbird."
Dante
Dante's feet hit the top of the big mass in the middle of the tentacles, finally.
Of course, he wasted several seconds trying just to keep his footing, what with all the flailing around. He grunted. "Why... won't you just... stop... moving?" he asked, as he brought Rebellion down into the fleshy bits again.
Khadgar
Khadgar had never really fought anything this strong before, and he was starting to get genuinely nervous. But after a moment, he forced himself to keep breathing and began firing bolt after bolt of sharp arcane energy at Cecil and Foucault, determined to cut them both down.
Jono
Jono, meanwhile, kept his blasts focused on that central mass on Cecil's body, that point where the tentacles all seemed to converge. He held his ground, partly because he didn't trust himself to move while he was still this dizzy from being shaken, and partly because planting his feet solidly meant that he could give this attack his all.
He was going to need to sleep for a full bloody day after this, if they made it out of this.
//Go down, Cecil,// he urged. //C'mon, mate. Take a nap.//
[[ to be continued in the comments; much love to everyone who played along! ]]
Cecil and Foucault
Wandering down around the antique shop, the creatures that had been Cecil and Foucault slitherwalked about, looking with every eye for anything they could find - food, fun, furry clothes fire and destruction...
Jono
Jono looked more than just slightly dubious as he peered out from behind a pile of rubble that once was a building toward the slithering, blinking... bloody...
Cecil, apparently. Frankly, he was having difficulty picking out the resemblance, though he supposed if one factored in the tentacles and the large, murderous pink bird, it was really just a matter of squinting.
//Right, so, plan,// he ventured, looking back at the others that were gathered. //I draw him... ah... out...//
He kind of already was out.
//I mean, I'll grab his attention and fight where I can, try to keep his eyes off of th'rest of you?//
Bloody hell.
Khadgar
Khadgar was caught somewhere between fascination and horror by Cecil's form, and he couldn't keep from giving Jono a nervous look. "You'll be able to keep yourself safe with his attention on you?"
He'd settle for "relatively safe-ish" at this point, but he still needed to check and make sure Jono was thinking this through.
Jono
Jono's shoulders hiked up faintly.
//He can't kill me,// he replied. //He can make a mess of me, but he has to get close enough, first. I've got enough kick to keep that from happening. There's no need to worry about me.//
Okay, so really, Cecil and Foucault could tear him limb from limb, and that would be less than pleasant. But it still wouldn't kill him.
Cara
"Just try and avoid the tentacles. I've seen what you people think happens with those."
Cara, no.
Dante
"Pretty sure I saw internet porn like that once," Dante volunteered, too, because he was helpful. He shrugged. "If Starsmore wants to throw himself in front of the big tentacle monster, sure, whatever. Then we stab him."
Strategy was not his strong suit.
Khadgar
"I'm not very good at stabbing, but I have some spells that'll hurt just as much," Khadgar said. He'd also save a shield spell up his sleeve, in case Jono turned out not to be quite as indestructible as he claimed.
Jono
Ah, no faith in the indestructibility of the guy who regularly blew out his own chest and lower jaw without any outside assistance at all?
... That was fair.
Jono nodded once, and then looked back over the rubble at the wandering bosses.
//I'll make my way around him to draw his attention, then. You lot can come at him from behind once my wrappings have come off. Shouldn't be difficult to miss the signal to move. It'll involve the best fireworks I can muster. Any questions?//
Cara
"This is a terrible plan." That was a statement, not a question, Cara. "But I can't think of a better one."
Dante
Dante heaved another mighty shrug and said, "Hey, we can always just go charging in and hit him. That usually works."
Beat. "... When you're not that squishy." Khadgar kind of looked it.
He peered over the top of the rubble, squinting at Cecil. "Anyway," he said, as his sword manifested across his back, "I say we go in and get the fucker already."
Khadgar
Khadgar was... okay, he was pretty squishy, to be honest. "Let's hope he's easily distracted," he said, readying himself to be behind Dante. The sword was pretty impressive, after all.
Jono
//If he's not, then there really isn't any of Cecil left in there,// Jono replied, wincing. And then he squared his shoulders and stood. //Right, then. Let's do this.//
And before he could talk himself out of it, he darted out from behind their hidey hole and ran out into the open, moving to run around Cecil, tearing his bandages out of the way and sending up gouts of flame as he ran.
He was an idiot he was going to die this was the worst plan ever oh lord...
Cecil
Yeah, there was at least something of Cecil left.
Oo, look - shiny!
All his eyes turned to follow the flames, and he writhed over to follow them. Was this shiny thing edible? Or did it need collecting and hugging to death?
Cara
That looked like their signal. Cara drew her agiels, the bite of their magic comforting against her palms. She looked at Dante and Khadgar. "Well, try not to die."
Your inspirational speeches needed work, Cara.
Dante
Dante's weren't much better.
"Yeah, whatever."
He dashed out of cover, sword in hand. He wasn't great at the whole stealth-and-deceit bullshit anyway. Dashing forward and trying to stab the weird-ass tentacle thing in the... uh, was that a back?
Whatever. Closest thing, getting stabbed.
Khadgar
Khadgar definitely felt out of place now, not wielding any kind of weapon, but he only dwelled on that for a second before re-focusing. As he came out of cover as well, he began casting the incantation for an arcane blast, his eyes glowing blue as the spell finished and launched a bolt of energy towards Cecil's back.
Jono
You know, in hindsight, today probably would have been a great time for Jono to give those skates of Ringo's a try? Because two legs were great for a good many things, primarily running, and Jono did make a point to go running every day, but Cecil had size on his side. And many, many more legs than he did.
This plan was looking worse and worse every moment, in fact. Jono was no longer allowed to be the one to make plans.
//Think shiny thoughts, Starsmore. Distracting, shiny thoughts.//
Yeah, now he was shifting the color of his flame from yellow-orange to blue and back, and sending little bursts of fire up into the air to crackle away like fireworks. If a few happened to fly into... as close to a face as Cecil and his bird had left, just to make sure their attention stayed on him... well, all the better. Jubilee would be proud.
Cecil
Cecil followed after, curious and hungry but not deadly yet - he always had time to play with his food, and the colors were pretty!
Foucault honk/howled and flapped his wings, the wind whipping around the street as he reared up to see what was going on.
Cara
Since Dante was stabbing at the tentacles, Cara went for the chicken that was not a chicken bird thing, her agiels jabbing towards its body.
Dante
Too many tentacles. Too many tentacles.
Dante let out a frustrated growl in the back of his throat, bringing his sword down on a couple of 'em, trying to hack his way through.
Khadgar
Khadgar was definitely going to have tentacle nightmares for a while after this, and he swore under his breath at how much faster Cecil was moving than he'd imagined. This time, he called up a bolt of frost to fire at the creature, hoping the chill would slow him down.
Cecil
Hey! Those tentacles were attached, thank you very much! And there were things hurting them!
Cecil swatted at them, tentacles sweeping in all directions as a portion of his eyes focused back on the source of the hurt. Foucault whipped out with his wings, trying to bat them away.
Not all of Cecil's attention had left the shiny thing, though, and with one last swipe, he managed to catch it, raising it with a pleased noise and shaking it a bit to make more shiny colors.
Cara
Oh, that couldn't be good for Jono.
Cara stuck at Foucault with her agiels again, since that seemed to be working. "Here birdy, birdy, birdy."
Dante
Tentacles swiping his way meant Dante had to leap out of the way, somersaulting over a set of incoming tentacles. That put him closer to the squishy bits, at least, but he didn't have much of a window.
He was gonna take that window if he could at all manage it, re-manifesting Rebellion and attempting to plunge it straight into the fleshy bits of hopefully-actually-body between Cecil's tentacles.
Khadgar
Khadgar didn't want to get in much closer, especially with the tentacles flying around, but he knew there wasn't much of a choice at the moment. Darting towards Cecil, he crouched down and aimed a blast of fire where his body looked most tender. It wouldn't hurt Dante but he couldn't do anything about the burning smell, sorry folks.
Jono
Burning smell, Jonothon was used to. The burning seafood smell thing was new, but Jono had more important things to worry about, like how he was dangling upside-down by one leg, suspended by a tentacle, which was shaking him around like a ragdoll.
This was not one of his more stellar moments, no.
But Cecil might be pleased to know that shaking him that way did, in fact, cause the little shiny thing to make more colours. If it just happened to come in the form of a blast of flame aimed toward what Jono could only guess was Cecil's body, well... that seemed to be the thing to do.
Particularly when being dangled upside-down by one leg.
Cecil
Hey, now! Ow! Cecil let out a sound somewhere between a screech and a howl and did his best to smack at the things that were hurting him.
In the process, he let go of Jono, though that might not be a good thing, considering how high up he was.
Foucault flew at Cara, beating at her with his wings and honk/howling in protest.
Cara
Could Jono fly? Maybe? Cara wasn't sure. Besides, bird. That was distracting.
"Hey, wizard!" She called out, as she pressed the agiel against the nearest wing. Khadgar, Cara, his name was Khadgar. "Can we get roast poultry too?"
Dante
Yeah, Dante's efforts to stab Cecil some more had to be interrupted - again - in order for him to vault over a few tentacles. He finally touched down on one and pushed up.
Death from above, maybe?
Well, Dante was gonna try and plunge that sword in on his way down, anyway. "Keep burning him!"
Khadgar
Khadgar's first concern was Jono; thankfully, Slow Fall was one of the first spells he'd learned, so now Jono wasn't falling as much as he was floating to the ground. Then he shot off a fireball at the bird, and another one at Cecil for good measure. Somewhere, archmages were feeling stricken by his reckless mana use, but it was all worth it to see these things roasted.
Jono
And here Jono had been expecting to be smashed to a gooey pulp upon hitting the cobblestones below. He'd even had his eyes closed and everything, bracing for impact. When impact didn't happen so much as a light bump of the ground under his bottom, he cracked open one eye, blinked, and then stood and stumbled dizzily backwards, making a note to thank whoever had thrown that spell profusely later.
And, because he wasn't going to let this not-being-splattered thing go to waste, he was firing off yet another gout of flame towards Cecil. Barbecue was definitely the special of the day, today.
Cecil
HEY! Fire was not fun! HE WAS NOT FOR BARBECUING!
Cecil shook himself and whirled his tentacles around to try to squash the flames. His eyes everywhere narrowed and scowled around, looking for their source.
Foucault got off the ground and started trying to peck at Cara with his huge, curved beak.
Cara
Cara twisted out of the path of the beak, swinging her agiels around to rap against it, their shriek rising to an even higher pitch. "Bad murderbird."
Dante
Dante's feet hit the top of the big mass in the middle of the tentacles, finally.
Of course, he wasted several seconds trying just to keep his footing, what with all the flailing around. He grunted. "Why... won't you just... stop... moving?" he asked, as he brought Rebellion down into the fleshy bits again.
Khadgar
Khadgar had never really fought anything this strong before, and he was starting to get genuinely nervous. But after a moment, he forced himself to keep breathing and began firing bolt after bolt of sharp arcane energy at Cecil and Foucault, determined to cut them both down.
Jono
Jono, meanwhile, kept his blasts focused on that central mass on Cecil's body, that point where the tentacles all seemed to converge. He held his ground, partly because he didn't trust himself to move while he was still this dizzy from being shaken, and partly because planting his feet solidly meant that he could give this attack his all.
He was going to need to sleep for a full bloody day after this, if they made it out of this.
//Go down, Cecil,// he urged. //C'mon, mate. Take a nap.//
[[ to be continued in the comments; much love to everyone who played along! ]]