Dria Bones 1-25: The rats over take you. It is all you can do to keep standing on your own feet. They leave light lacerations and strike so quickly you barely have time to defend yourself. You suffer minor to moderate injuries (at player discretion) but it isn't enough to incapacitate you. Dria looked at her feet and found a simple that had a Blue Lotus carved into the handle. Other than that it was completely plain. Completely, but very well made. The Sword of the Pasithee Homeworld! They were waiting for her! Dria picked it up just as the rats noticed her and swarmed her way. Unfortunately, she had yet to be trained in the ways of the Sword. The Rats overtook her and it was all she could do to keep her head above water and keep standing on her own two feet. She was receiving light cuts all over her body and struck with such speed that she didn't have time to parry them. And she received a rather nasty cut on her calf. 125 + 161 = 286
Trinity Ward (combining 1st and 2nd prompts together)
There was something strange about waking up in the middle of the night with no recollection of even doing so. The past few nights had seen Trinity Ward going to bed at a time that was considered abnormal for her. It was also abnormal for the young woman to not wake to her alarm at all. The truth of the matter was that Rin was feeling beyond exhausted ever since passing through that ice maze with Cynthia. There was never a time that she could ever remember feeling so out of sorts.
Even now as she lay in bed, feeling her eyes drift shut, and only at like 7pm Rin knew there had to be some sort of explanation. But what if there wasn't?
As her alarm ticked down the time until midnight she slept deeply and without anything seemingly waking her. At exactly midnight it was the lightest sound that had Rin sitting straight up in her bed. Had something just hit her? Shrugging off her covers the young woman's gaze was blank as she took a step forward. Trinity couldn't even remember how it came to be that she was standing in the center of the ice maze. Her gaze took in the display of tiny balls of lights, no they were faeries, bunch together. A moment later a blinding flash went off and Trinity was shocked into full awareness.
She didn't stand in the maze anymore. Now she stood on a snow covered field and was growing colder by the moment. What was going on here and where was she?
All that Rin could make out in the distance was what looked like a grand battle. Figures thrust and parried and in short time Rin saw just exactly who was fighting whom. Giant rats were apparently fighting and overwhelming soldiers that were dressed in blue and white. As Rin watched a soldier broke away from the battle and came running towards her. She was confused about the urgency in his actions as he tugged at her arm. "What are you talking about?"
She wasn't going to be involved in such a battle and yet it seemed as if she was being counted on to help out. Stumbling forward Rin glanced down to see what she had tripped over and noticed the most beautifully crafted weighted staff at her feet. While archery was more her style Rin would never admit that she knew a little bit of staff work. Figuring out that a staff would just be as effective in getting through the enemy rank she grimaced and picked up the weapon before moving forward. There was nothing more than she could do besides block strikes that had been directed her way and do her best to thrust and parry with a weighted wooden staff.
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76-100: You shine in battle crushing your enemies with every blow. Nothing can touch you and you raise moral as you move forward!
Doing as others were doing Xi-Wang made his way towards the smoke, because that meant fire and warmth. What he didn't expect was just as he got close, close enough to see past the last line of trees, he saw rats and men in old fashioned soldiers uniforms fighting...with swords. Who fought with swords now a days? That wasn't the odd thing though it was the rats, of course, the rats stood on their two back legs and were tall - like a human. For a moment he thought to the Christmas story, or was it a play, the sugar plum fairy....wait it was the nutcracker! That's what is was called.
As he'd thought about it, wondered if he knew anything about it, one of the soldiers came rushing to him and all he heard was something about being reinforcements and they were dashing back into the fray and leaving Xi-Wang to figure things out...only he didn't have to figure things out. He sort of just went to follow after the figure, scooping up a weapon he found in the snow on the way. It was a good thing he had as many rats seemed to have noticed him.
Taking to defending himself, and perhaps to hello the soldiers, Xi-Wang swung and fought and did his best to take down whatever rat came into his line of sight. He was trying his best, yet unconsciously he didn't know why.
The friendly voice did little to calm Cerise's terrors, but it was something. Something kind and warm and soft to cling to in a place that was so unsure. And normally her parents' voices would ring out in her head, telling her not to talk to strangers, but this felt different. After all... for all Cerise knew this was a dream and this lady with rainbow hair and nice eyes was just a dream too. That meant that this was all about dream rules too right? And dream rules meant that you stuck by anyone who was nice to you.
So with that in mind, Cerise didn't just take hold of the hand that was stretched out to her. She ran fully into the arms of the woman who had stopped to help her, still shaking and crying for parents who were too far away to hear. This lady was here to help her, Cerise just knew. She knew. And so when she led Cerise away from the cold and snow darkness towards the smoke in the distance, she followed, her cries dulling into whimpers and sniffles.
Until she saw the rats. Then her panic swung back in full force and she clung to the legs of the nice lady who saved her, shrieking in fear at what she was seeing. So full was her panic, that she nearly didn't hear what the man in the uniform was saying until he had finished, and yet despite not hearing a word that he said, she knew.
To protect her people with everything that she can...
It's what a princess would do...
Cerise nodded firmly to the soldier who had spoken to her and then turned to the woman who had saved her.
"You protected me. So now it's my turn to protect you, okay?"
And Cerise didn't know how she did it, but she did. Maybe she was stronger in her dreams. Maybe she was learning, like her mother said she would one day, how to control her dreams. Mayne it was something else, but whatever the reason, Cerise tore through the rat soldiers, fending them off from herself and her new friend with ferocious accuracy.
She'd been taking a little catnap, or perhaps a not so little catnap, something she'd been prone to lately. Even her favorite TV shows hadn't been enough motivation to stay awake, which Alise had found weird, but had mostly kept her suspicions to herself. After the story Etoile had told her about the carriage ride disaster, Alise had pondered if maybe she simply was worn out from the adventure, attempting to think sensibly for once. It did not occur to either of them that perhaps there was something odd about the ice fairy statue that Alise's grandparents had gifted her, that Alise had ultimately let Etoile have.
Either way, Etoile had been napping, oblivious to all around her, up until something bopped her on the nose, rousing her from her slumber. A floating light grabbed her attention, and the kitten felt compelled to follow after it, leaving the comfort of the makeshift kitty bed that had been set up for her. So absorbed in following after the light, Etoile wasn't aware of ever leaving the room... let alone the house entirely. It was when she found herself in the middle of ice maze that she started to come to her senses, watching the lights gather in front of the ice fairy sculpture, but it wasn't until the blinding white light, which found herself in the middle of a clearing in the middle of nowhere, that she began to realize something was... off.
Though 'off' might have been putting it lightly. For all intents and purposes, Etoile was normally a small silver kitten that spent her days hiding out in the huge dollhouse Alise kept in her room and watching TV. Right now, though, she was... a petite young girl with fluffy blue hair... no shoes, and no ears or tail, for that matter? Certainly, Etoile if bothered to stop to think about it, she could recall seeing some of her fellow Mauvians achieve a human form before, but they were still cat people, weren't they? There wasn't much time to think about it, though, because Etoile was quickly finding she was cold, and certainly, she wasn't wanting to freeze.
The smoke coming from the distance hopefully indicated warmth, and the now human (but normally not) Mauvian headed for it, hoping to get warmed up, and out of the snow. Quickly, though, the sounds of battle caught her attention, and there were people in uniforms fighting… rats? Etoile didn’t really remember the story of the Nutcracker, so this was just really confusing to her, as she watched the fight going on. Still, she started to follow after the soldier, compelled to do such, but stopped when she nearly stepped on… a rapier? Etoile had absolutely no experience with moving around in a human body, but she picked it up regardless, gripping it in her… paws? Hands? Either way, the rats were coming at her now, and thus, she started swinging, though it was clumsy at best. Still, Etoile did her best to fend off the attacking rats, though she suffered some scrapes and scratches for it, and even managed to push them back a tiny bit. Still, she wondered how much longer this was going to keep up.
(539 words)
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26-50: The push forward is difficult but you keep your wits about you and are able to fight them back a bit. Winded and heavily targeted, you wonder how long you can keep this up! You suffer minor injuries but nothing enough to really slow you down.
As Ashley got closer and closer to the source of the smoke she could hear the clang of objects clattering against each other–
And whilst under other circumstances she might have continued on with more caution - that is if she had continued on at all - her feet continued to carry her onwards and ever closer, the clashing getting louder as she started to catch glimpses of blues and whites here and greys and brown there.
Even so when she finally broke through the trees, the source was still unexpected as the blues and whites resolved themselves into people in blue and white uniforms and the greys and browns resolved themselves into...
Rats - but the biggest rats she had ever seen and who wielded swords against the people in blue and white.
One, a man in solid white, broke away from the group in blue and white and for some reason Ashley found herself walking forwards at his words, to the point where she almost stumbled over the rapier lying on the ground almost conveniently in her path.
She reached down to pick it up with the same compulsion that she had had to follow the man in white, her hand closing around the hilt just as the first rat started to charge in her direction–
But where one rat went, more followed - to the point where Ashley was soon surrounded - and they were fast, darting in and out too quickly for her to follow.
Somehow, somehow she managed to keep a grip on the rapier - and somehow she managed to keep on her feet, even as the cuts that they landed on her started to bleed, blood dripping down to stain the snow.
The appearance of other people in the trees should have been heartening. Instead, it only managed to scare Daisy worse. Just how many people had been hijacked? It was a question that she could and would have pondered deeply had there been the time for it. Instead, the closer she got to the smoke, the more her ears were picking up. And what she was hearing was not good. Thanks to the time she and Angus had dated, she knew the noise that sword on sword made. Or sword on armor.
Oh balls.
Pausing on the edge of the clearing, she blinked. Soldiers versus rats? What was even the ******** I don't want to be the next queen of Narnia," she muttered softly under her breath, retreating into flippancy to keep from screaming. The sudden appearance of a solider pleading for her to help them fight didn't help and she felt a compulsion to help. Following as the solider ran back intot he fray, Daisy saw a gang of rats charging towards her and realized that she was standing in snow, in the middle of a battlefield, in ******** pajamas.
She was going to die. Possibly horribly. But that same, strange compulsion to help had her in its grips and if she was gonna get taken out by a lot of vermin, she'd go down swinging. Snarling, she took a step forward and nearly tripped as her be-socked feet caught on something hard and heavy. Kneeling quickly and brushing snow from it, she grinned as she stood back up, both hands gripping a claymore. Sure, it was heavy and slightly unwieldly, but it was something she had a little bit of knowledge in using. If she ever saw Angus again, she might have to kiss him in thanks for those long ago sword lessons.
It should have been a massacre. The rats had numbers and speed on their side. She had barely enough knowledge to keep from being outright murdered. But somehow, through the fog of pain as steel, tooth and claw tore at her, she managed to keep standing. She wasn't sure how long that would remain the case. There were simply too many rats.
Screaming as something tore at the flesh of her back, she swung the claymore out with everything she had, just trying to stay alive and moving for as long as possible.
It had finally happened. She was immune to coffee.
Gigi tossed the empty triple-shot iced-coffee takeaway cup (that had gotten her such weird looks from the barista when she ordered, given the snow storm), and flopped onto her bed with a dramatic sigh that turned into a yawn before she knew it. This was ridiculous. She never slept this much, not even when she was sick. And there was still so much to do… But now that she was lying down, that work list seemed very far away. It could wait till tomorrow. Everything could wait. She closed her eyes, trying to summon up all the things that she was putting off, order them, plan. They drifted away from her, like the snowfall.
She slept, peaceful and deep, until a light buzzed in front of her face. Heavy-limbed, she took a slow swipe at it, but the little light swiped right back, a cold little kick to the tip of her nose. With an unhappy groan, Gigi stumbled to her feet, following the fairy across her room, out of her bedroom door, into the cold, tall walls of the ice maze. That… wasn’t right. Hallway, kitchen, lounge, front door. She’d skipped them all and gone right to the fairy party. Well, fair enough for a dream. The carvings had been beautiful, and she maybe should have known better by now than to accept a souvenir. The faint laughter brought a smile to her lips. Dancing fairies were a magic from before she knew what real magic was.
The dreamscape changed in a flash of white. Snowblind, she thought, abruptly more awake than she’d been in days. She blinked, spinning in what seemed to be real snowfall, in a real forest. That or the dream had taken a turn for the lucid. Either way, real cold was seeping through her thin house clothes, and her breath huffed in the air. She needed to get back inside. Thinking house-shaped thoughts didn’t immediately summon one, so maybe the dream wasn’t as ‘lucid’ as it seemed. That, or she’d stumbled out into her own back yard in the middle of the night. There was smoke on the horizon, but no rooftops, no hint of a building.
“Coo-ee!” she called. The snow muffled the sound instead of carrying it.
Okay, smoke-wards, she decided.
In short order, she regretted her choice. It was that kind of dream. Gigi frowned, taking in the other sleepwalkers, the uniformed soldiers. The Rodents of Unusual Size. This was exactly why she lived on coffee and light naps. But she couldn’t bear to tell the poor soldier that she wasn’t their reinforcement. They needed help. She couldn’t very well leave them, even if she wasn’t much of a fighter. One thing she’d learned, every body helped in a war.
The first weapon she stumbled over was some sort of blade, long and thin. A rapier? She didn’t have time to check who had dropped it, or search for something better. A rat-soldier was already closing in on her, and its buddies weren’t far behind. A whole lot of buddies. They surged from the treeline, and it was all Gigi could do to brace her blade in front of her, hoping like hell the enemy would just skewer itself as it charged. That kind of worked. Once. The first rat fell back, a gash on its arm. The rest, not so much. Gigi stabbed and slashed at the press of furry bodies, defending as best she could. The blade was too long for her, but it was a target-rich environment. Despite a few deep scratches and near misses, she mostly held her ground, even pushing the rats back a short distance. But she was tiring quickly, breathing ragged and weapon clumsy. Where was an alarm clock when you needed it?
It had been a busy Christmas between trying to get everyone presents and then working at the animal clinic... plus her sudden popularity on Instagram people wanted to buy her clothes. So she honestly had not noticed when one of the clients at the clinic had left her that charming statue for a gift. That is why Evren was not surprised when she felt her eyelids droop. Yawing and stepping away from her work she picked up her cat and curled up on her bed. "Just a little nap... goodnight Regi."
Ringing, giggling and then brightness. When Evren fully regained consciousness she rubbed her arms because she was standing in the snow... letting out a deep breath she could see the air float around her. Looking out into the distance she saw the smoke rising hopefully that meant someone was around and she could get out of this cold.
It was a battlefield... of course, it was something like this... why would any Christmas be normal after all. Giant rats and a soldier recruiting her for battle. "Well... I guess I don't really have a choice after all...." Quickly picking up a sword she then unceremoniously entered the battle.
1-25: The rats over take you. It is all you can do to keep standing on your own feet. They leave light lacerations and strike so quickly you barely have time to defend yourself. You suffer minor to moderate injuries (at player discretion) but it isn't enough to incapacitate you.
Course her love for animals was her own undoing. She hesitated and now she was in this situation. Despite their large size, the scratches didn't hurt any worse than ones she received from the animals she helped take care of at the clinic. Still stung though...
Tama had almost not even noticed his surrounding and the strange creatures that began to appear... no, the vain former cat was busy stroking his long, brilliant hair and preening like a human-shaped peacock.
That was, until he almost tripped over something. It was a silver rapier. Oh, odd! The vain man was about to compare it to his flowing silver locks when he realized he would need it for an all together different purpose.
”Vermin!” The man cried, almost barring his teeth like an animal. ”Well, I must say, I’m quite good at catching mice.”
This time his voice was quite cocky as his face belied a smug grin.
”This form may be... unusual... for slaying these beasts, but his fine weapon should be a fine replacement for my former natural assets.”
He brandished the sword like a knight - clearly quite fond of himself.
”Well,” Tama taunted the rat army with what only could be called a feline’s look in his violet eyes as he joined the fray. ”Shall we?”
She noticed other people, the closer she got to the smoke, as they all wandered together through the snow with all of the massive trees of the forest surrounding them. Queenie offered the lady addressing her a small, semi-friendly wave though her priority was definitely on getting the heck out of this weird situation.
The sound of fighting had her back stiffening and her shoulders straightening. A soldier of some kind was breaking rank and running to them but her eyes were focused solely on the fact there were giant rats everywhere... rats the size of people!
The man jabbered on about reinforcements of some kind but Queenie wasn't paying attention, proving to be quite a problem for the young lady as she soon found herself being expected to take part in this battle.
Her?
Fighting?
No -- Sweetite was the one who did the fighting and she wasn't Sweetite at the moment. She was plain, beautiful Queenie, who... apparently had a sword at her feet to use???
This had to be some sort of messed up, weird dream. Maybe she ate too many tarts before bed or some of the milk was spoiled that she drank. Surely this wasn't real - there weren't mice or rats that were five, six feet tall and they certainly weren't trying to fight with weapons like human beings would.
Grabbing the sword at her feet, the young woman decided to take fate into her own hands and partake in this dream. If she was going to be subjected to the role of heroine... well, she might as well embrace it and come out looking outstanding.
While the others around her fought, she looked for openings to slide in and defeat the monstrous creatures when the opportunity suited her the best. As they were distracted with some of the other humans, she went at them from behind, the side, anywhere she could with the hope they would have little time for retaliation.
After all... she had absolutely no idea on how to use a sword!
There was a momentary pause with the people-size rats coming at Dria and she took a moment to breathe. She looked around and saw the others fighting the rats; some doing really well – others doing terrible like herself. She noticed the lady from before, the rich lady waving at her and she grinned and waved back. The rats now attacked the lady, but with sword in hand, she seemed to be doing very well for herself, taking out rats right and left. Dria nodded and looked around once more, wondering, what is this, some bizarro nightmare form of the Nutcracker? Is Clara going to show up? More Rats showed up and she went back to fighting.
Rolled: 73 51-75: Rats fall in your path! Several manage to land blows but very few can stand against you. You received little to no damage
Snow was fun to play in, it was so versatile and entertaining. The giant cat loved to romp around in the chilly white stuff but even he was tired of the snow... more particularly the cold. At least today he was. So rather then going out to patrol or just wander Mel, guardian cat extraordinaire, called it a night and curled up in a nice warm spot, a giant spotted ball of fur. He dozed, a paw kicking out every so often as he dreamed, the occasional snore or snort interrupting the quiet.
At least until midnight rolled around when a giggle echoed through the room. Not that Mel heard it. He was dead asleep. It wasn't until something smacked him in his nose that he gave a start and woke up. "Wha?" He blurry glanced around but didn't see anything but a little light flicking around the room. Groggily the cat climbed to his feet and started to follow the light, trying to see what it was exactly, even as it led him out of the room...
And into some icy room. The walls were made of ice and the floor was packed snow, there were exits but Mel had no idea where they went, but the most telling was that there was no ceiling. He was outside. Standing in front of a giant ice sculpture. Well now this is strange. The cat yawned and nearly nodded off again while his little bulb of light flew off to join the others that were congregating at the statue. The cat sat down and started to doze off again when a flash of light left him blinking, and wide awake.
"What the?" He looked around only to find himself in a empty clearing with snow falling all around him. With a frown the Mauvian stood up... and up... and up... on human legs. His surprise couldn't even be expressed as he glanced down at himself to find himself a human, with feet and hands and everything! Holy Crap! This was AWESOME!
Before he could do more then wonder at his opposable thumbs a sneeze burst out of him, reminding him of the cold that was even now numbing his new hands and feet. Once more golden eyes took in his surroundings and realized he was alone, in the cold, in a body that wasn't really his... He wanted to go home. But keep the hands. It would be so much easier to play games with the hands. A trail of smoke caught his eye, where there was smoke there was fire and where there was fire there were people. Yay! People!
Without much thought of danger he galloped across the snowy clearing, only falling a few times as he got use to his new figure. Who knew being a human was this hard?
He made it through the forest without too much trouble, only a few superficial scratches here and there. Not even the sounds of a fight had him slowing down, honestly it had him speeding up since his curiosity had been sparked. When he popped out of the wall of trees to see a bunch of humans fighting giant rats he came to an instant stop, a growl echoing deep in his chest. A rather strange sound coming from a human. Mel despised rats. Evil, evil rats! So when a man in white welcomed him to the fight the cat/human didn't even hesitate, he started forward only to trip on something in the snow.
After securing the sword that tripped him the cat/man climbed back to his feet and bounded towards the rats with a yowl that was not meant for human throats. "You furry bastards! You've messed with the wrong cat!"
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open for interaction if anyone wants a cat-man to talk to or fight with
It was just that time of year again where anything could happen at any time. As much as Jason really wanted to enjoy things like carnivals and Holidays, there was always that sense in the back of his head telling him to be weary of everything. Always on high alert, and yet he had still taken home the adorable little snow fairy globe. A surprise he though, for making it through a complex maze at the carnival. It had been accompanied with bizarre dreams. Dreams he told himself were just stress because it was that time of year and he was just looking for trouble everywhere.
That night though, he woke up with start that night. A bright light waiting for him when his eyes spring open because...did something just hit him? He knew he was in bed, he could feel Nischal next to him but...but he didn't bother him. Instead he followed the light, stepped through his bedroom door and found himself in front of several mystical creatures. Laughing, they were actually sort of pretty. For a moment, and then he snapped back into himself as a blinding light cause him to flinch.
Why was he outside? In the freezing cold. In his pajamas at that. No socks on his feet either. He despised the cold. He didn't leave his apartment this time of year without all his cold-friendly accessories. Was that a fire in the distance? A fire meant there would be other people and, more importantly, some warmth form this freezing cold.
As he got closer though he noticed that others were around him as well. More people lured in by that Snow Fairy. Then he heard the sound of fighting and...were those rats? Rats that obviously knew how to weird swords as well. He didn't know what to make of it all honestly, but then there was someone quite pleased to see them all and asking for help. Jason didn't know why he felt so compelled to aid this man, he hadn't wanted to be involved in this fight, but he didn't have much of a choice because the rats had decided they were the enemy and he needed to fight regardless.
Thankfully there was a sword by his feet and he was quick to pick it up. When he was younger he might have indulged in a few fencing lessons, but he hadn't taken them very far. Though, maybe it was because they were just rats and not very smart, he didn't seem to be having that much trouble against them at all. He was pushing his way into the battle and noticed a very familiar face having a bit of a hard time.
"Xi!" He called out to his roommate and friend, slashing out at any rat that stood between them. "Are you hurt? Are you okay?" He didn't seem to be having as easy as a time against these foes, so he cut down what he could around them.
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