In Which Howl Expresses His Feelings With Green Slime

[strange_wonders]

Characters: Howl and the Fiertia crew
Content: Long Night is a bad time for wizards. Especially vain ones...
Setting: Below deck on the Fiertia
Time: Following the postin Howl's journal.
Warnings: Green slime, hysterical wizards, and rampant magic.

Comments

For the Rescue Party

[strange_wonders]

Down near the door to the wizard's room, things were the worst. The slime was bubbling out from under the door in a way that suggested there was a great deal more of it piled up on the other side, and the shadows here flickered with a greater malevolence, as if trying to scare away any potential investigators. The sound was the loudest here, a great cacophony of sound so loud it seemed impossible that it was simply emanating from an ordinary bedroom. The magic swirling in the air was palpable, strong enough to be felt even by those disinclined to the conjuring arts.

Oddly, anyone who dared venture near enough to try the door at the center of all this mess would find that--though usually barred by magic strong enough to deter even the most dedicated of burglars--the door was held shut only by the volume of green goo built up behind it, and with a little muscle, could be persuaded to open.

[power_of_heart]

The closer Orihime had gotten to Howl's cabin, the nastier the sense of something not right had gotten. Not like Ichigo earlier: Mr. Pendragon still felt like himself, even if there was all of this unattached insane magic swirling around, driving her fairies into a frenzy. That meant there was still time.

She hadn't expected to have to muck through so much slime, though. It wasn't ectoplasm, but more like something in a cave as far as she could tell: had Pendragon and that other voice tried to summon one of those deep underground creatures that Should Not Be, with capital letters and everything, and it was trying to re-create its home? She could feel something else, still small, but who knew how much it was going to grow?

Whatever it was, she wasn't going to let this backfire on Mr. Pendragon. If she could get to the door, it would let her in and maybe she could do something for him at least. She started clawing at the slime coating the doorway, chunks dropping on her boots and hem, and, her progress too slow, turned to look

crashing ur party (with a permission note from Andy)

[flashstepfeline]

Yoruichi moved towards Pendragon's quarters to meet Yuuko and whoever her band of followers turned out to be. She couldn't believe Yuuko had anything drab in her wardrobe, so she was looking forward to seeing which lucky outfit was getting the axe.

But the real question would be how to deal with the unusual powers Pendragon seemed to be releasing, and Yoruichi did not have a good solution. It might be that the only thing they could do was stand guard and try to neutralize any truly dangerous manifestations as they escaped him.

To Yoruichi's surprise, it was not Yuuko's presence she first sensed, but the doctor, Inoue. Yoruichi smiled slightly as she saw what the girl was trying to do, and how messy she getting in the process.

"That won't be necessary, Doctor Inoue," Yoruichi called as she approached. "When the others arrive I believe we can try a more direct approach to opening the door."

[divinated]

"And what approach would that be, hmm~?" Yuuko's voice purred from around the corner, and soon she appeared in all her glory, naturally dressed for the occasion, Naminé tagging at her heels. Slime coated her fingers and streaked across her pants from where she rubbed the goo away, but her hair was surprisingly green-free. But perhaps not for long.

"Shall we try knocking in hopes that Howl will answer?"

There was no use in hiding his name. It had been revealed over the network, and despite being an avid fan of secrecy, this time she could not contain the truth. He had gone by his pen name back in Bellcius, but this was not Bellcius. This was another world entirely.

And for now, names did not matter.

hangar area

[abeator]

What. The. HELL. When Abe had heard Naminé ask about plumbing problems, he'd expected the sewage system to have busted and a toilet to have flooded somewhere. This disgusting green slime? Did not look like it came from any person, and even if so, there was no way they had enough sewage on board to cause this. Most waste went down and overboard the butt end of the ship, anyway.

So this? This was not waste. But it was as gross as it and ten times more creepy. Abe had taken position at the hangar to mop and sweep away all the slime that attempted to touch his precious ship, pushing them all off to the hangar door and outside when he could. So maybe he could keep at it for a while longer -- what he hadn't counted on were the shadow... things, and he had one staring at him at the moment.

"ARGH!" he shouted in shock, falling on his butt in slime. "WHAT THE HELL!"

Re: hangar area

[murcielago]

Ulquiorra looked very unhappy. Well, he never looked happy as such, but he wore a positively dark expression as he left his cabin with a slam of the door. The Long Night was turning out to be a bad one for him, what with the Hollow in his head raging to get out, and the miniature disaster that seemed to have struck the Fiertia was not improving his mood any.

The noise was strange and off-putting enough to his concentration as it was, but the almost glutinous feeling of magic in the air was enough to make his Hollow-induced headache around twenty times worse. To a creature such as himself, it was almost tangible and seemed to hang in around like an invisible, syrupy miasma. The scent of the thick, revolting slime that was slowly creeping closer to Ulquiorra's location was almost enough to make even him recoil and he was damn-near unflappable in most circumstances

[demonic_romeo]

Sebastian himself had made his way to the hangar as well. He had been scarce these past few days, far too attuned to his powers and the affects of Long Night to allow himself to be around others, where they could catch a glimpse of his true self. Today was one of the days where he had decided to appear, so that his disappearance wouldn't raise too many suspicions. His expression was more tight and drawn than usual, but he had been prepared to go to the kitchens to prepare a meal with his usual butler smile on his face.

And that had gone out the door when he'd discovered the slime. Or more specifically, slime on Lilith's exquisitely soft fur. There would be Hell to pay for this.

Sebastian ended up following the trail she had left, which lead him to where he was now. He caught Abe's figure taking a topple, so he made his way over, picking up Ulquiorra's presence as well. "Have you slipped?"

[abeator]

Magic? What was that? Abe was about as normal a human as was humanely possible, and didn't really understand the finer details of the Long Night and its effects on his fellow crew members. He was learning very well what it was right now, though. Slime. Slime on his plane. Shadow things on the walls, too, but most importantly, slime on his plane.

"No duh," he snapped at Sebastian before catching himself and shaking his head, wiping off the slime on his hands and butt. "This is gross. This is really bad. Do we have more mops?" At the very least, they could push the slime out. He was already feeling the ship start to lose altitude from the weight.

He spied Ulquiorra by the door. "You! Come in here, let's start mopping!"

Radio room

[fifthshirogane]

This slime...it was absolutely everywhere! Naoto was a bit harder to gross out than the average person, but even she was being affected by this slime. The smell was disgusting and it was threatening to cover everything.

The Fiertia had a lot of cleaning to do, and it was best to start now. Naoto had changed out of her usual outfit opting for short sleeves and rolling up the legs of her pants. Her shoes were left in her room on a shelf - no use letting them get covered in slime. She had two buckets (one filled with soapy water) in one hand and a mop in another, although she wasn't sure if it would be much help. She had chosen the radio room to start the work in, as there was delicate, vital, and expensive equipment that should be taken care of first.

Naoto found a clear spot to place the buckets and set to work moping the floor. She was in for a long day of cleaning.

[secondarcana]

If there was one thing that Yosuke hated right about now, it would be the freaking slime that was all over the whole ship now. Ungh, it wasn't as if this whole situation didn't need to be any more worse than it already was! First there was that job, that part where he actually died (even if it was for just a few seconds before being subsequently revived by Orrihime) and after all of that, the captain getting caught and put in jail and now some random guy was taking charge like nobody's business and they were stuck here and--

The brunette grimaced as his foot stepped down on a puddle of slime with a particularly loud squishing sound. Unnnngh, this was just plain gross. After everything that had happened, Yosuke sure as hell hoped that something good was going to happen.

Trying to pointedly ignore the strange sticky feeling in his feet (was the slime actually in his shoes?! Ew), Yosuke dragged the pail of water and mop behind him towards his destination, which was the radio room. It was best if they cleared that up first before the

[justplugit]

Atsuro meant to go help Naminé with the slime where she was but... when he opened the door to exit the radio room, he was greeted with a wall of slime!

... Okay not really a wall, but there was a layer of slime slowly inching into the radio room like some kind of sentient grime and muck. The first thing he did was rush around and get as much of the radio equipment off the floor -- wires, headphones -- and onto the tables, just in case the slime had gotten further into the room when he went to get something to clean this mess up. And then he went out to get a mop or broom or something.

Catching sight of Yosuke and Naoto, he called out to them, relief in his voice, "Oh man, I am so glad to see you guys! The slime's getting in the radio room!" The horror, the horror! What if all the equipment got ruined? He squelched his way past the other two to get some cleaning equipment and shouted, "Hold the fort while I get a mop!"

[fifthshirogane]

Naoto didn't have time to reply to Yosuke before Atsuro interrupted. And before she could respond to him, he was already gone. The radio room didn't look as bad off as some of the other areas of the ship, and that was a small relief. Once Atsuro was out of sight, she turned her attention back to Yosuke.

"Hello, Yosuke-senpai," she greeted. Even though as a boatswain, Naoto held a high position in the ship, she still found it hard to break old habits such as treating her fellow investigation team members as upperclassmen. "I didn't expect to see anyone here, but if you've come to help clean, I appreciate it." Although she was no expert at cleaning, Naoto was the type of person to do a thorough job at whatever task she was given, and dipped her mop in the soapy water before once again attempting to tackle the slime.