[PRP] Artifacts 101 (Lucky, Gale, Rep, Mark, Carl)

[Zoobey]

ARCTIC BASE - REP

A jarring noise, metal clashing against metal broke through the white, and something shattered, it was difficult to tell through the cold grip of her hand, through her strange singing-

- And then he held her in his hands. Even in her full form, an ever-shifting bluegreen and harsh gold, she distant, less a weapon and more an accessory, maintaining form even through the weapons lock.

'Go,' she whispered, and it was softer even than Tracey's voice, 'I will assist.'

Yet the moment Rep managed to get to the base of the cylinder railings again, Alice was blocking his path, shaking her head. She pointed to one more vault, just easily behind him, also open.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

ARCTIC BASE - REP
There was always something deeply intimate about holding a weapon to Rep, to other people it might not have been a big deal, just a metal thing to be wielded, but to Rep it was a lot more, something far more spiritual and close, he was always acutely aware that he didn't wield a weapon, he wielded Tracey's physical form and the steel in his hands was as close to him as the voice in his mind, inextricably a part of him. It was for all these reasons and a few more unspoken ones that he carried Circe with a reverence and care he reserved only for weapons, in a sort of awe of the fact that she could even maintain a form in this suppression field. She was beautiful and terrifying in equal measure and perhaps one of the first women Rep had ever found himself truly respecting. He could only really respect what he feared.

But still, he knew she wasn't his at all and that Carl was out there somewhere without his weapon, vulnerable and a magnet for danger, he needed her back.

About to depart he looked to Alice and raised a brow before glancing back to the vault and with a shrug obliging her too. She'd helped him, whatever she was and he didn't see any reason at this point not to help her. He'd be dead if she hadn't also accompanied them.

 

[Zoobey]

[ ARCTIC BASE - REP ]

In that specific vault was just a very old book. It didn't seem to be worth very much, and all the pages were blank. The cover of the book might have been valuable at some point, but through the faded metal border, whatever accessories this item had worn had also fallen off.

Alice however, seemed adamant that Rep take the book, even so as far as to shake her head if he showed any signs of hesitation. The weapon in his hands seemed obliged to wait; he could almost feel her looking around the room too, as if she was ghosting his footsteps.

xBaneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep picked up the old book, examining it curiously, before carefully tucking it behind his harness of pouches and pockets he always wore on missions (and generally for stealing things around the island), securing it in place before giving Alice a nod. It didn't matter what it was, if it was important, he'd bring it back, crumbly or not.

If there was one things Reps were good at, it was hoarding useless items and bringing them back to the island.

Circe on the other hand was not useless and it was with the habits borne of weilding an axe as large as he was that Rep made sure he didn't so much as touch the ground or doorframes with the long elegant scythe. "If there's nothing else.." he said, moving towards the door.

Part of him wished he could ransack the whole place top to bottom.

 

[Zoobey]

[ ARCTIC BASE - REP ]

Alice shook her head and then disappeared back into the elevator at the question, no longer visible either.

Rep may have made it almost to the elevator when there was someone else blocking his path.

This time, it was a little boy, wearing a green mask now missing both eyes. compared to how Alice had looked, this very familiar apparition of a child looked too grounded, as if staring at a three-dimensional object from two dimensions. Its familiarity betrayed its true nature.

"Give it back, it's mine."  

[Baneful]

Rep froze at the little boy and tensed up entirely.

"GET TAE ********." he snapped, taking a single step back. He wanted nothing to do with the kid, remembering how catastrophically badly it had gone last time he'd run into him.

"You are COMPLETELY MENTAL and I'm no ******** negotiating with you. The book is mine under finders keepers laws and the scythe belongs to no one but her goddamn self."

 

[Zoobey]

As Rep refused, the mask began to turn brittle and black, cracking along the edges. From under the mask new branches began to form, spreading outwards at an impossible rate. They wove against each other, twisting higher and higher to create a massive shape around the boy.

"It's mine." The scream echoed around the arena, causing the entire place to shake. It was still accumulating form, spilling outwards, larger and larger until the railing the thing was standing on began to creak under the pressure and then suddenly sink and dip.

Through all of that Rep could hear two, if not three including his own weapon, sets of voices telling him to run-

- But it was too late as the metal underneath his feet twisted sideways, walkway taking a sharp descent downwards. Where the railings had broken entirely there was now what could only be explained as a mass of twisted green, as if looking through at five superimposed images without understanding what they were supposed to be.

There was no warning as a tendril of green oozed outwards, a multiple faces of the lost boy bubbling out from the surface, latching onto Rep's ankle and easily flicking him one of the far, branching railings. It was at least twenty feet tall now and still expanding outwards, and stood firmly in the way between Rep and the elevator.

The noise was loud, the ringing and screaming causing his head to pound terribly, yet though the chaos there was a steady voice that told him to fight.

Baneful

VERSUS ???: HP 50/50

Alice's area of effect actually slows down the creature from becoming too catastrophic. In the meanwhile, it is up to Rep to pave himself an exit.

- He can roll 2d12 - 4, though every time the weapon comes into contact, the dice stat modifier increases by one. That means the first turn it is 2d12 - 4, the second 2d12 - 5, the third 2d12 - 6 etc.

- Auto damage is -10 a turn, this thing is very dangerous and nearing it will cause intense nausea and sickness, especially without his own weapon's proper Fear shield.

- Charge attacks: While using Circe, after 3 charges he can attempt a charged attack. Roll 12d4. Add up the dice amount ONLY if the first 4-sided dice is not a 1. The attack will also prevent auto attack from the enemy for a turn.

- You are free to attack until you cannot any more/ it is defeated or quote me after each turn!

 

[Baneful]

Rep hated creation. Of all the legacies it had very firmly ended up in his Bad Books. He thought it was a feral brat of a ******** thing, contorting the world, wrecking people's lives and generally pitching huge hissy fits most of the ******** time. He hadn't forgotten the families wrecked by the undying effects, mimsy's boy being a permanent reminder of the chaos this thing had wrought. He had no mercy for it and wanted it nothing so much as fully contained.

Even when it split and spread, twisting out and out, he didn't flinch, simply glared, furious that he had to deal with this again, terror twisting its edges into talons. The order to run came too little too late as the walkway twisted, leaving him holding onto almost nothing, looking down at a dizzying mandala of green.

It seized him and tossed him like nothing, but at least he was used to the air with Tracey, twisting like a cat in mid air as he landed, Circe still in his hands, with the worst migraine he'd experienced in a ******** while and no small degree of being battered around already. He hated this thing and he was absolutely done with its s**t. It was a wee guy who thought it was allowed to run with the older guys and it needed someone to punch its ******** glasses off.

He wasn't used to fighting with a scythe, but there was something of Tracey's shape in it, two hands on the long handle, with a hooked blade. Circe fell somewhere between two methods of using Tracey, the hook and the winged serrated blade at the end with none of the reach, but if anything was suited to reaping a swathe of this foresty nightmare it was her. He lashed out at one of the tendrils near him as hard as he could.

"Why don't you ******** OFF?" he spat. "You had your place. You had it once and now you are out of ******** line, can't you see? The others are trying to find him, you are just consuming everything."

HP: 50
DMG: 12
Charge: 1/3

 

[Molten Tigrex]

AMAZON BASE

He flushed red for a moment at her joke, but didn't say anything so as not to dig that hole any deeper.

Mark hadn't said so much as a word yet on the headsets - they were on their own for now. Lucky stared at Charlotte as she spoke, obviously weighing her words and what to make of them. He spared one long look at Carl, before he folded his arms at her final insinuation and grinned nervously. "Actually... I'm happy with things as they are too."

"Between the two - three of us - I was tired of taking orders from that homicidal maniac. Look, I, uh, I don't live like this because I enjoy it. And did you ever see what he did to my hand?" Lucky removed the glove from his right hand so he could casually show off the twisted scar of a large stab wound through both sides - and right through the circle tattoo. He could almost imagine the look on Gale's face at the idea they were having a little subversive tea party in her high-security deathtrap. "But, uh, we're not here to settle for what we have, or you wouldn't have offered to trade."

Lucky tried to keep his expression as neutral as possible as he put the glove back on. There was no doubt Mark could hear every word of this. But it was too late to stop now. Mark and everyone else needed more time, and he had to know what she was up to. He still had not touched any of the food, but reached for the teapot to casually fill his own cup. He didn't want to keep looking at her for too long at a time, or he'd lose his nerve. "Or... are you proposing something else?"

zoobey

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

 

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

[ ARCTIC BASE - REP ]

"I AM CREATION,", a thousand voices rang at once and for a moment the pain and nausea was blinding. As the weapon hit the mass of green, something shatterered from the vines - a speck - memory-

There were two children, a boy in green and a girl in blue and yellow. The boy was trapped in a cage of sorts, crying.

"It's okay," said the girl, who was unmistakeably Alice, "I'll play with you but you have to promise to return back once it's sleepytime."

"I promise," said the child, and they reached their hand out for a single key grasped in Alice's hand-"

"Again," rang out the weapon suddenly, beaking through the memory. 'Strike again."  

[Baneful]

"You are a LITTLE s**t." Rep barked.

The flash of memory threw him momentarily off balance, enough to be bent double by the nausea as he retched and had to balance himself on Circe's handle, feeling his energy sapped intensely by it all.

But he obeyed, pulled down for just a moment before he forced himself to leap back up at the green abomination, swinging Circe as true as he could, this time hesitating a little more than he'd intended as he anticipated another backlash.

HP: 40
DMG: 3
Charge: 2/3

 

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

ARCTIC -REP

There was howling and for a moment the weapon wasn't enough. It was a maelstorm of words and nonsensical memories - emotions-

- there was a memory but this time it wasn't her or Alice or Creation-

-It wasn't a voice, just a surge of of familiarity like a wall that covered the chaos in Blue Kingdom colours and drowned out the green in soft blue light-

-And the pain ebbed away.

'Once more, ' whispered the weapon, voice faint. 'Once more. '

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep knew he'd have bruises, but he always did. It was part of the job, a body that had been mangled, beat and bruised every way that someone could imagine and yet kept going. This was no different and there was something there, something they got closer and closer to with every swing.

This time when he attacked it was without hesitation, without any regard for anything but his favourite thing - the main thing that made him feel truly alive - combat.

"As you ******** wish." he said, breathless, twisting around in a sweeping movement and throwing all of his strength behind the cleave. It was enough for a charge too.

HP: 30
DMG: 15
Charge: 3/3  

[Zoobey]

[ AMAZON BASE ]

Charlotte looked at Lucky pouring a sugar pot into a cup of tea, and opted to say nothing, clearly entertained. "He'll probably remember that, you know." She finally casually slid the actual tea pot his direction. "Any effects of Creation can always be exchanged, but it does have a strange fascination with the concept of children."

Here she suddenly frowned. "I don't like children and I never have, and my family hasn't always been the kindest to me. I never wanted any children of my own and, well-"

She cut off and instead turned to look at Carl. He tilted his head slightly sideways and looked back, both intimidated and confused, still picking away at a donut by literally just picking the icing off of it with his hands. "-Well the two of us came to an agreement. About specific children. That's why I wanted you back here, so I could fulfill my part of this agreement."

"Holy s**t," said Mark over the microphone, and there was the sound of something clattering in the distance, "She knows."

"Yes Mark," Charlotte said, tapping her own headset that was quite well hidden through her long bang curls, "I do know. I only needed one of you here and I knew it was guaranteed as long as you had your own child problem. But the most important thing of all is I gambled on this moment, that you would divide your teams, and it would be more than enough to occupy it from watching me."

Mark remained silent suddenly. It was clear he was also thinking.

"I like my own luxury," she repeated, "and it doesn't include children. I want this world to stay as it is, and if I have to sacrifice something to fulfill my end of a deal, and keep things as they are, then I will."

She took out what looked like a very fancy mason jar wrapped in black cloth. Very slowly, she unwrapped the cloth, leaving the jar firmly sealed and closed. Through the glass of the jar was an incredibly dark sphere, so dark it seemed to absorb all the light around them. She beckoned to Carl. "Come here."

He looked severely reluctant, face growing paler, and desperately looked at Lucky instead. Charlotte smiled at the gesture. "You can take it then, Lucky, for safekeeping. I wouldn't recommend you personally keeping it for too long, you might start feeling a little too close to death's bed." Apparently this was some sort of entertaining joke to her as her smile widened and she passed the jar to Lucky with both her hands. "Use it wisely."

Molten Tigrex

 

[Zoobey]

[ ARCTIC BASE - REP ]

The weapon hummed as it cut straight through the mess of green-

- FEAR. PANIC. HATRED. CONFUSION.

What am I doing wrong

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?

-

"Nothing," said Alice, and she gently reached over to pet his head. "You're playing the game right, but sometimes people say no and that is okay too."

"What if I say no?" said the boy, "What if I don't want the game to be played that way - what if I don't want to go back to sleep?"

She paused. "Everyone goes to sleep, even me. That's what makes the game more special when we wake up."

"No." He suddenly towered a little taller than her, branches enveloping her shadows, and suddenly it wasn't a child but a thin tree spreading outwards. "I WANT IT TO ALWAYS BE SPECIAL."

"Stop it!" She rushed to the windows that were beginning to be enveloped by hundred, thousands of branches reaching outwards. "Stop hurting them! If you hurt them it's no longer any fun!"

"I SEE EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING IS SPECIAL."

-

Ringing again. Someone calling Rep's name. His limbs felt cold, heavy, and even without the nausea and dizziness, he was nothing against a Legacy.

'One more time," the weapon whispered, sounding strained, tired, as if talking from far, far away. 'Again.'

Baneful