"STAND STILL YOU FUCK"
MURDER REND
to be specific, murder them with REND
((This has kinda escalated just a bit out of hand, I think.))
You are beginning to suspect fighting Words with Words is perhaps not the way forward as Mr. Wilde invariably tries to block your own efforts.
REND REVELATION
[Words: 5+3]
Your Word comes as a great cleave, an extension of your murder-thought as it widens and sweeps with a force mere will could not hope to manage, and Mr. Wilde raises his arms and shouts in defense. The Words meet with a powerful clash, and your swipe is almost deflected -
almost. You nearly let off a cheer as he catches the sawing blade of your Word straight in his face even as it is enriched with his very own light and magic. It tears into his skull with a horrific grinding sound, leaving through the top right of his head, hot glowing chunks of gore spinning out of it more like cinders than actual bits of flesh. As he drops Nately and falls to the ground, facing away from you, you see his face begin to shed an unnatural light, the origin of which you do not yet see. Disappointingly, however, this has not at all put the man down.
What has occurred, however, is that the blade just seems to have kept on going, twinkling above the horizon briefly before it explodes in a flash, two prongs of it shaping into a single bright arc reminiscent of a rainbow as they strike the ground on both sides. Staring at it as you can't help but do, you get the strange feeling that it seems to be...
opening somehow.
Well. I ended up in free fall anyway.
I see where I'm going to land. Hopefully it's the river. If it's not, I throw an explosive cyst in the opposite direction from the river to propel myself towards it.
[I Can See For Miles And Miles: 1]
Well, let's see. The ground beneath you is covered in billowing surges of luminous dust from where you seem to have exploded a good portion of the landscape in your dramatic entry. So it's somewhat hard to tell what might be below. One thing is clear, however - you probably don't want to land where you came from, and considering that your upward flight is only slightly set off by wind, you think you'll do an explosion or two to propel yourself anyway.
[Powered By Explosions: 5]
This does give you a moment's pause. You're fairly sure grenade jumping shouldn't actually work in whatever semblance of real life this is. But then, this is no ordinary grenade. You generate the cyst with a spreading tingle, and cook it for a good couple of seconds, timing the explosion ideally as you let it blow you rather efficiently in a certain direction - now, said direction is also quite random, although vaguely in the direction of the river that you can see in the distance.
As the explosion in the sky rocks your bones and sends you careening through the air, mostly unharmed apart from the rather terrible shock, you briefly note a sudden appearance of a star not too far from the horizon. And it is at about this point when you impact the water.
[Come In, The Water's Fine: 2]
Fun fact - hitting water at this velocity is roughly comparable to hitting solid concrete. And though you do not see a goddamn thing as you disappear into the choking, burning dust, you definitely become intimately familiar with the sensation of bones breaking, skin lacerating and virtually all of your organs getting very close to each other and mingling. You bounce off the surface of the water before sinking beneath the waves with a splash, leaving a trail of blood and loose bits as you float to the shore slowly, quietly lamenting the way all journeys must come to an end.
This is the sort of thing that venues get sued over. Do they have personal injury insurance?
Take cover. Ride out this downfall somewhere safe.
[The Hole You're In: 1]
You scramble for cover, but you effectively operating blindly has about the effect you would expect - first you trip over the good doctor, who seems to have lain down, pressed her face into the ground and covered her ears, then you tumble on, rise briefly to your feet and proceed to trip over a piece of debris, smack face-first into the shredded remains of a tree and fall onto a gentle slope, which you roll down, landing into something that feels a lot like you'd expect liquid helium to feel, in that it is not at all as ruinous to your good health as plunging into actual liquid helium, but roughly as incredibly weird to feel on your skin as it crawls on you, moves to envelop you. You begin to gently sink into it as a buzzing that reminds you strangely of Mr. Munderly fills your ears and a tingling spreads over your skin, also a sensation you've come to associate with Mr. Munderly over decades of experience.
"Nately, remind me not to save his life again if there's a next time."
Repeat the REVELATION-grab Nately-run thing that worked so well last time. Just don't stop running this time.
Where he has a Word for you, you have a Word in return. The same one, unfortunately. It's a little inconvenient to have only one.
REND REVELATION
[Words: 5+3]
As a hypersonic cleave tears toward you, your own Word meets it uncomfortably close to you, deflecting it, but not entirely.
[Extraordinary Dodge: 1]
You have no time to react - the saw blade of revelation strikes you squarely in the face, carving into the bridge of your nose, tearing into your skull, ripping out a gaping hole in your face as you spin to absorb it - it comes out the top right of your head, unseating one of your eyes. And what the other sees as you topple to the ground and lose your grip on Nately is something else.
You feel your face slowly cave in on itself, and you see light shedding on the ground from a head wound you are sure would be fatal if not for your own remarkable physiology. Pieces of your skull glow softly as they dance out of your head, obeying strange laws of motion as you stumble away, your head growing asymmetrical as the rift continues to shift and deepen.
You scramble to your feet, a horrific itch spreading to your skull. It's getting difficult to see as the brilliance of your wound is starting to hurt your one working eye. But even so you feel compelled to look up - and there you see the arc of a rainbow, blinding white to the point where it makes the rest of the sky look black. It reminds you of a mouth. It seems to be slowly opening.
"Oh, absolutely! I haven't been blessed with good sleeping spots lately, you know? A hole in ground, out under stars, prison... Dunno about how she would feel about it, but she's exceptionally tired. Having a proper place to sleep would probably do good for her."
Let's accept the invitation. Carefully princess carry Lee in, assuming she doesn't put up resistance.
[Sleeping Beauty: 4]
You pick up Lee - she shuffles a little, but seems to be sleeping a little too deeply to be awakened by this. You carry her gently where Rose leads you, ushering you through the dark clanfolk encampment. You pass shadows every now and then, and take note of their silhouettes - endlessly varied, but uniformly lumpy and not-quite-human. You see a bit of eyeshine as they glance your way curiously before Rose gestures something at them, mentioning that you're a guest. You weave along the various tents and eventually she goes into one, with you following behind.
It's only a little brighter in here than in the encampment proper, a small steel lantern with an even smaller glowing ember in it shedding a bare minimum of light on the surroundings, enough to let you see a rather large figure sleeping wrapped head to toe on one end, and two smaller individuals laying intertwined a slight distance away. There is another bit of bedding prepared already slightly off to the side, and Rose wastes no time in rolling out an extra bedroll that she fetches from a wicker basket lying at the foot of the large individual.
This is her tent, she signs to you as she gently prepares the fourth spot. Over there is her father, she nods at the large sleeper, and the two over there are her aunt and mother, she indicates the two others. They'll like you, she's sure. And your friend too! Just lay her down over here, she discreetly signs toward the bedroll, so this is what you do, laying Lee to rest and covering her as she stirs only slightly.
Rose puts her hands together as you stand up after putting Lee to bed. What would you like to do now? Should she show you around? Have you any questions? Perhaps you'd like a smoke? She's not had hers tonight yet, now that she mentions it.
Leif Erikson, Miner
- A Word: INEVITABLE
- A Word: APOCALYPSE
- Moth-robe (worn)
- Body Count: 228
- Mead of Poetry (5 shining revelations remaining)
- Enders' Friend: The Grave of Red Clouds Parting
- Inscribed Wooden Stylus
- Iron spear
- 1.03 gp
- The Box: ?
- Induced Lucidity: the Aftermath, or the New Beginning
- Compatibility: Minding
- Tricks of the Mind: Perception, Memory
- Tricks of the Mind: Engagement, Negation, Abstraction, Prestige
- Tricks of the Mind: the Self, the Other
- Gods of the Underground: Did You Just What
- A Visit From The Stork: Is What You Yes
- The Voracious Dark: Two Deals Made
- The Voracious Dark: The Promised Sixth
- Moth's Flight: Not In Her Wildest Dreams
- An Ancient Sea: The Hedonist's Inspiration
- The Miracle of Life: An Honored Guest
Eileen Minett, Vinyl Collector
- Naked
- Wounds: 2
- A Word: HUNGER
- A Weapon: Explosive Cysts
- Grenade Jumping: A Solid Technique
- Higher Tonight: There And Back Again
Jack Daniels, Karate Man
- Naked
- Red and gold vest and breeches combo
- Leather boots
- Traces of Mischief: 90% Boneless
- Wounds: 1
- 14033 gp (in sack)
- The Flip Side: Uh, Yeah
- The Queen's Guard: Unusual Troublemaker
- Powers of the Beyond: Gardener of Thoughts
- Dusty Wooden Speaking-Trumpet
- Crossbow Bolt (in throat)
- A Word: REND
- A Word: SILENCE
- A Weapon: Murder-Thought
- Uncoupled: Strength
- Wooden Door (held)
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Back To The Drawing Board
- Tower of the Mind: Endless Well of Mystery
- Induced Lucidity: A Garden Well-Tended
- Elongated Affairs: Enemy of the New State
- A Place In History: Vastly Unreliable
- Anglefork Castle: the Great Worm
- The Obsolete Class: Suggested Victims
- 2 rats, crushed
- 1 rat, strangled
- 1 rat, live
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Sunday ± 2 Days
- The Impromptu Prophecy: There's A Mountain Higher Than We Knew
- Doomstones: So High Up But Such A Bitter View
- The Majordomo: A Great Divide Between Us Now
- The Voracious Dark: Decreasing Demand
- The Voracious Dark: More Specific Requests
- The Good Doctor: An Eager Listener
- Body Count: 3
Thomas Minstep, Insurance Agent
- Troubles In Anglefork Town: Bearer of the Sword
- A Word: ABSENCE
- A Word: GOODBYE
- A Weapon: The Sword They Fear
- Traces of Mischief: Nausea's Depths
- A Bowl, Black and Knobby
- Anglefork Castle: From Another Time, Another Land
- Tight Leather Pants (worn)
- Incredibly Tight Blue Dress (worn, mutilated, mildly provocative)
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Sunday, July 25th, 409 S.D.
- The Majordomo: Busy Morning
- The Good Doctor: House Call
- The Queen's Guard: A Reward Well Earned
- Make A Man Out Of You: A Crowning Achievement
- The New Queen: Lasting Gratitude
- Tower of the Mind: Advice Given
- The Obsolete Class: Let Them Be
- The One They Fear: A Satisfactory Contract
- A Place In History: A Worthwhile Associate
- The Box: Absolutely Delightful
- The Flip Side: One of Them
- Body Count: 2
Oscar Wilde, Chemistry Teacher
- A Word: REVELATION
- Wounds: 2
- Traces of Mischief: Glowing Facial Rift
- The Serpent's Egg: Dissemination
- Body Count: 4
- Time-ender's measure (wrapped, processing? stopping?)
- 10 m of rope
- Half a candle
- 1 rat, skinless and smoked
- 6 gp
- Poor Misshapen Dice
- Lock of Hair (unidentified)
- Iron nail, unused
- An Inauspicious Key
- Burlap Foot Wrappings (worn)
- Burlap Hand Wrappings (worn)
- Moth-Eaten Hat (worn)
- Respectable Brown Skirt (worn)
- Old Brown Waistcoat (worn)
- Bright Yellow Tunic (worn)
- A Wealth of Burlap Ribbons
- An Obsolete Class: Trustworthy Individual
- The Doom Guard: The Inquisition Moves On
- Tower of the Mind: Get Away
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: The Less Dangerous Friend