[Open!] Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods ?

[npc_kun]

Characters: Open
Date/Time: 6/14-6/19
Location: Everywhere
Rating: Varied
Summary: Edensphere needs a hero. Or several.

[This is a general open log for the Damsels in Distress event. Threads can be done in quick or standard log format, as you prefer. You might also want to mark the place and approximate time in the subject of your comment, for

Comments

Tuesday Morning: Captain Planet (with railroad tracks)

[live_ringer]

The first thing that Gene registered when he began to wake was that his back was killing him. It felt like there was no mattress between him and the planks that supported his bed. Then he tried to shift and found that he... couldn't. He was absolutely not capable of bringing his arms down from up over his head. Or drawing his legs up. Or much of anything. His eyes popped open and he turned his head around in wide-eyed puzzlement and maybe a bit of terror to see what the hell was going on. The initial view of trees and the sky-dome above informed him that he was outside for some God forsaken reason, which sort of explained some of his discomfort. Then he lifted his head up as much as he could to look down.

"What the bloody HELL?"

He was bound by rope at the feet and waist (and presumably the wrists) to what appeared to be some very old fashioned train tracks. And to add a heap of insult to injury, he was stuck in some sort of blue gingham nightmare. Gene was unable to do anything but stare in pure disbelief for a few long minutes

Re: Tuesday Morning: Captain Planet (with railroad tracks)

[feathered_earth]

Cara had been heading out to visit Apple on her morning off, but a short walk from the bridge had presented her with--train tracks. She was pretty darn sure those hadn't been there yesterday. Before she could scratch her head or wonder what the Sphere was doing today, she heard an enraged yell.

"Gene?!" Cara sprinted along the tracks, skidding to a halt at the scene. It was too surreal to comprehend entirely--Gene tied to the tracks, wearing a pale blue dress, and a mannequin standing there with I am a dastardly villain written all over him. So she did what seemed the most sensible thing to do: socked him in the face

[live_ringer]

Gene felt his blood freeze as he heard Cara's voice. Ohhhh no. Logically, he knew it was good that she had shown up, as he DID need the assistance. But. He'd just as soon nobody he knew saw him like this. The blow to his pride would hurt worse than the rope burns he was giving himself. Normally, he would flatten a palm against his face in exasperation at the situation, but he didn't happen to have one free. Instead, he opted to squeeze his eyes shut and mentally counted backwards from ten to keep from swearing too violently around the girl

[feathered_earth]

Violent swearing wouldn't have bothered Cara really--apart from the journals, her close friends before the Sphere had included castle guards and a pirate captain, not really noted for their delicate language. "There's enough to give him a good kicking," she said, a little distractedly as she finished and briefly lifted Gene's foot to make sure that she'd got all the way through.

She looked back briefly to make sure the mannequin wasn't about to get up as she moved onto the waist, realizing at his words what a ludicrous get-up he was wearing. "You know, I think you're right," she said as she set to work on these ropes with even more care. There was just a touch of amusement in her voice, but for the moment he was still safe from ridicule.

"You aren't hurt at all, are you?" Besides the rope burns which she guessed he would probably have.

June 14th, early morning, near the Hatchery

[grinninggrifter]

Grift drifted awake. Normally, this procedure was uncomfortable enough, seeing as it involved rousing himself from his excessively comfortable, warm bed and forcing himself to go to work. This morning in particular seemed to be even worse. He was sitting up in a, a... seated position. This was his first observation.

He replayed his thought and groaned. Ah well, none can quite expect genius at such an early hour. He'd just have to think something particularly witty for his second observation. The witty comment never came. Instead, he jolted awake and tugged at what appeared to be chains around his wrists, and legs, and yes, even his neck. Wide eyed, he strained his eyes to see as far as they could go, only to realize that he was outside. Chained to a chair. In his boxers, because that's how he slept when he went to sleep in his nice comfortable bed. He shook his head in bewilderment and rasped, "You gotta be fuckin' kidding me. Hello? Anybody home

[cathar_jedi]

Sylvar's shift began at midmorning. She met her Guard-partner and checked in with the departing pair before they took position outside of the Hall. There'd been some kind of false alarm earlier when the greeter had tripped and taken a bad fall, but otherwise it had been uneventful

[grinninggrifter]

He had been sitting in the throne for god knows how long, simply muttering himself to take the edge off of the boredom. Grift didn't like sitting still, preferred constant movement over slumber any day, and his chains didn't leave him much in the way of action.

Then a... cat girl walked up to him. He looked at her curiously for but a moment, not dwelling on the fact that he didn't find her appearance to be altogether surprising or even very off-putting. Aside from the eyes, of course, but he wasn't too concerned with that at the moment.

He glanced down at himself, aware that he was chained to a wooden throne, mostly unclothed and probably beginning to smell bad. Not the best position to be found in. "Ah." He blinked owlishly at her for a moment. "Um. I assure you, I didn't get myself into this position. But, ah... yes, help would be much appreciated if you're able." He grinned, a bit sheepishly. "Thank God. I was starting to think nobody would show up."

[cathar_jedi]

"Very well. You are near to the Hall of Beginnings," she said, eying his predicament cautiously. "I believe that there are few passersby. Perhaps later in the day. I also believe that it is supposed to storm today, and-" She flinched as a crack of thunder chose this moment to sound, and it started to rain.

Well. Now she had to help him. If he were hit by lightning or something because she had not, she would be horrified

Wednesday morning - Fisher Island, on a rock in the middle of the lake

[iattractmushi]

Cloud woke abruptly, realizing even before he opened his eye that he wasn't in the same place where he had gone to sleep. There were many clues that made him realize this... he was sitting up against something that felt suspiciously like rock instead of lying down on a futon; there was the sound of water slapping up against a hard surface, that definitely hadn't been there when he'd last been conscious; and finally, his arms were being held up above his head in a way that made his mostly-healed ribs ache.

"Nnn... what the hell?" He tilted his head upward, craning his neck a little as he looked to see what was restraining him. His wrists appeared to be caught in metal bands, and when he tugged at them there was the jingling sound of metal-on-metal. "...huh. That's different." Well. He couldn't have been brought here in his sleep normally, he was far too light a sleeper for that... so his current predicament must be the fault of the Tree

[feathered_earth]

Cara had been heading to Fisher Isle with the specific purpose of talking to Bernard--it had been a while, and realizing that made her feel kind of guilty. But the voice from across the water made her stop short. Oh boy--what was happening now? Not another set of train tracks....

No, it was some poor guy chained to a rock in the middle of the lake. Which also had not been there yesterday. "Hello!" she called back, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Are you okay?" Well, if he was calling for help that was sort of a silly question to ask. She didn't bother asking how he'd got out there either.

Kneeling at the lake's edge, she stirred her hand in the water in the hope that it would attract Bernard's attention. Well, she had to get over there somehow.

[iattractmushi]

Cloud was tugging at the chains binding his arms carefully, trying to see if he could give himself some more slack without making his ribs ache any more than they already were, when he heard someone shouting. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw someone on the shore.

Raising an eyebrow at her question (not that she could see it at this distance) he shook his arms, making his chain rattle--just in case she hadn't noticed his problem yet. "Fine! But I'd be a lot happier if I wasn't stuck here like this!" There had to be boats somewhere in Edensphere, maybe this person knew where to find some.

He watched curiously as she knelt down by the water. What was she trying to do?

[feathered_earth]

There was a boat tied up at the pier, but Cara wasn't the best at boats. And this would be quicker in any case. When the bubblegum-pink shadow of Bernard appeared under the surface, she grinned. "Hey, Bernard. Would you mind taking me to that rock over there?" she asked, pointing. The kraken chittered in agreement, and Cara held still as one tentacle wrapped around her. She'd been hugged by Bernard before, but this time she was held above the water as Bernard took her over and set her on the rock

Monday morning, somewhere near Med

[redhead_rabbit]

This day was already going great. Rabbit was stuck in a dress (again) and it wasn't just some saloon dress like before. This was full blown princess. Poofy sleeves, corset, and layers and layers of tulle. And even worse? As the redhead was going to work, he found himself stepping straight into a trap. And it was a stupid trap too. He stepped in the middle of the trap and was quickly yanked from his feet as he let out quite a yelp. He was strung up by his ankle (yes, just one), upside down, by a lamppost (or tree. He couldn't tell). That meant his skirt, in all it's tulle glory, was now in his face, his skivvies and boots now clearly visible. Attempting to light the rope on fire using the magic from his hammer was pointless. He only ended up with a singed dress.

What was even worse was his journal had fallen out of his bag when he went for the hammer and it lay just out of his reach on the ground. Great.

[ i imagine it looks kinda like this. and OMG WHAT IS THIS BLASPHEMY! SAM ISN'T LATE WAT ]

Let's get this show on the road! ♥

[paintitgray]

Walking to work along the rope bridges from Wellspring to the Bazaar had almost become normal, though Kurayami still couldn't quite relax while riding the elevator. Today, however, the weather was making it hard to enjoy the stroll.

Rain was sheeting down already, plastering her hair to her face and neck and bedraggling her feathers. Wrapping her arms around herself, Kurayami tried to ignore the occasional ominous rumbling from the clouds and forged ahead, hoping there were towels on hand at the tea shop.

A flash of light caught her eye, and she turned, wondering uneasily if her halo could conduct lightning. It was the wrong sort of light for a bolt of lightning, though. More like a sudden flaring-up of flame. Kurayami squinted through the rain. It seemed to have come from that ratty bundle of cloth that somebody had hung from a tree...

"Oh, hell," Kurayami whispered suddenly, her eyes going wide. The bundle was moving, struggling; and it had legs, albeit pointing the wrong way up. "This is bad. This is bad." That was a

/o/ ♥

[redhead_rabbit]

"Mind givin' me a hand, yeah?" came the somewhat muffled reply as Rabbit attempted to fight with the now singed, sopping wet tulle. What a bad combination. The entire situation was just bad and unfortunate, just the redhead's bad luck kicking in. Or maybe it was that vendetta the sphere seemed to have against him. Either way, he wanted down and hopefully the mysterious voice he didn't recognize would help him. (at least it wasn't his boss come to mock him. Thank goodness)

Re: /o/ ♥

[paintitgray]

...it was a guy. Well. All right.

Rather badly wanting a smoke, Kurayami quickly looked away from what she'd belatedly realized were his undershorts and instead carefully eyeballed the lay of the rope from which the hapless beskirted guy was dangling. There was something not quite practical or realistic about the whole arrangement, as if it had been thrown together by somebody less concerned with the laws of normal physics and ropesmithery than your typical mere mortal.

"I'll try!" she shouted, and paced around the foot of the post, wiping rain out of her eyes as she inspected the mess, trying to figure out where to cut and how to keep him from falling on his head.

[dwn_infinite]

A red, frilly dress; a golden glisten to his hair; a single room adorned with more curtains and throw pillows than he would ever have thought necessary; It was official. The Sphere's sense of humor had hit an infuriating new low.

Counting and recounting the reported dangers of the wilderness he'd be facing, it was some fluke of the tree's humor that got him before he'd made it a kilometer from his own door. The tower seemed to erupt and enclose from all around him; before he could even respond, the path beneath was replaced by Persian carpet and his faithful wall-climbing dash jets replaced by pink high heeled slippers. He could only stare at his dropped journal down below.

Many minutes later, he resigned himself to sitting atop one of those garish chairs; maybe someone could pick up that radio distress signal he was still able to send...

[moe_rapier]

She was just clocking out for the day when she picked up that blip, and was off. Tuned to catch whatever radio signals she could pick up in case of, well, anything, she didn't check the signature. Someone dug up a device in the Scavenger's Yard, maybe, and flipped a switch... or it was a genuine call of distress. She wasn't a Watchman or a Guard, but she was still capable. Besides, it seemed that people were finding themselves in troublesome predicaments. It hadn't quite clicked that Edensphere was kidnapping the men

[dwn_infinite]

And it was only a matter of time before he'd heard the best voice he could have hoped for. He poked his head outside, having already thrown aside the tiara, but the puffy shoulders still stuck out more than he would have liked.

"It's just me, Locket." He slammed a palm against the windowsill. "And your guess is as good as mine. Think you can get me out of this thing?"

He paused in thought, drumming a finger against the stone. "There might be a door down there or something."

[moe_rapier]

"I'm sorry, I don't see any doors at the base." A hand lifted to one of her ear jacks. Let's have a quick scan of the interior, perhaps draw up a mental blueprint. She expected a trick door, something cleverly disguised, but saw solid stone, a single room... and there stood Zero.

It all took place over the course of a few seconds, and she shook her head.

"It's completely solid. Have your dash jets been disabled? I'll come up and check," she added, and gave no running start. The Navigator leaped, grabbed onto the wall, but quickly slid back down. Her boots met the wall and slid out from under her like the stone itself was heavily greased. Her forehead knocked heartily against the stone, and she staggered back, rubbing it.

"How bizarre... I suppose that's out of the question. Is there anything in that room we might use as ro-" It hit her. Faerie tales. ...Wait, was he wearing a dress?!

"This is going to sound strange, but it must be asked: Is your hair long? ...Er, longer than usual?"