Re: Equestrian Radio Show's Adventure Variety Hour: Explorers of STOMP (thread 2)

sunbeam Fri Nov 21, 2014 6:41 pm

Grease shucks off his jacket and scampers towards Hector, jumping right next to his face and spitting a ball of sparks in his eye. He skids to a halt and sighs, suddenly visibly tired. "Just when I started to think you were useful."

Crystalite Sat Nov 22, 2014 12:14 am

Hector roared in pain at the sudden flash in his eye. He turned to the new threat, and stopped himself upon seeing his tired team mate.

He looked at his blood-drenched claw, panting heavily. His eyes dilated as he looked to the unicorn he had been ready to kill.

"...Wha...?"

sunbeam Sat Nov 22, 2014 1:26 am

Grease taps Hector square between the eyebrows with a pointed claw, and another spark of electricity passes between them. "We charge out here to capture Braynor. We settle for Noir. She beats us half to death, and you want to make us to go back empty-handed? Are you that dense? Do you always forget why you go places once you get there? Did you forget she can literally decapitate herself? You are literally inches away from being a detriment to the team. This is as useless as I've ever seen you. And I've seen you making doe-eyes at a sparking pegasus!" Completely unaware of how close he probably was to being bitten and clawed, Grease turns away, heading for the stairs. "Pick up the near-corpse, and we'll find Anchors Away."

Crystalite Sat Nov 22, 2014 3:10 am

Unfortunately for Grease, the hippogriff was oblivious. Hector continued to stare at his claw, visibly shaking as he clenched it into a fist. Past engagements ripped across his mind unbidden, visions of war and chaos threatening to break him as he sat unmoving on the stone floor...

sunbeam Sat Nov 22, 2014 3:19 am

Grease turned around in a huff at the lack of movement sounds behind him, but froze when he saw the turmoil on Hector's face. Precisely what he had just said processed through his mind, and in retrospect he hoped Hector didn't process it at all. He walked back up to Hector and awkwardly put a clawed paw on his fist, pulling it down so that he could look Hector in the eye. "Hey. We're..." he groped around mentally, trying to place what Hector was going through. He came up with nothing and decided to work around the problem. "Noir clearly brings out the worst in all of us. Let's get her out of here, okay? I'm sure The Keep has some sort of vault they can throw her in."

Sobana Sat Nov 22, 2014 7:01 am

Nightshade trotted up to Noir and nudged her with her hoof.

"She is dead? I can't tell."

Nightshade looks curiously at Noir.

"Hector is just in a weird place right now. This kind of this can be unsettling at first but you get to the point where you barely even notice it any more. That or he will snap and kill us all in our sleep."

She rolls her eyes and does a single laugh as if she is reliving an embarrassing childhood experience.

"If Hector is out of it do you think we can just take her head? I mean do we even need the whole body? She can survive without her head right? I wonder how hard it would be to remove her head... hmmm."

She nudges Noir again and with no response she starts to rummage through her personal belongings.

"Maybe we can find a clue about what's-his-face... Or find something we can fence."

Search:

Crystalite Sat Nov 22, 2014 10:17 am

Hector looked down at the dragon to meet his gaze. He tried to process what Grease was telling him. Something about... Getting out?

"O-okay," he managed to work out, getting back to his feet. Waiting a moment for Nightshade to do... Whatever she was doing, he gently took Noir up and put her on his back.

Sobana Sun Nov 23, 2014 5:16 am

"Hey, I wasn't finished with that."

Nightshade continues with her detective clue searching and or looting attempt.

"You can have her once we find something we can bring back to the boss. I thought you already ate breakfast before we left."

Fury of the Tempest Sun Nov 23, 2014 2:21 pm

“With how sharp your eyes are, I don’t think I’ve been more glad that you came with me, instead of anybody else, especially that crazy mare.” Gearick said with a small shake of his head as Rose manage to successfully lead them right to the tower, guiding easily past all the remaining traps... “Hell you even managed to figure out what the numbers meant when I didn’t. Now all we need to do is get the wand and get out of here...”

ZamuelNow Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:37 pm

Wand of Eternal Skies image:

As the group approached the pedestal, they saw the Wand of Eternal Skies floating above the pedestal. The staff was simple while the head hovered separately in the shape of a stylized sun. Major Delight spoke up, "Who's going to do the honors?"

Through her boundless curiosity, Nightshade manage to find a tiny piece of paper hidden in the mare's mane. On it was a number of small symbols.

Crystalite Sun Nov 23, 2014 9:31 pm

Sobana wrote:"Hey, I wasn't finished with that."

Nightshade continues with her detective clue searching and or looting attempt.

"You can have her once we find something we can bring back to the boss. I thought you already ate breakfast before we left."

"I DO NOT EAT PONIES!" Hector shouted. "I just... Just... Gragh!" he sat down, clamping a still bloody claw over his face. He took it back, realizing his face was also now covered in blood. "Grraaaaaagh!!"

sunbeam Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:29 am

"Settle down, both of you." Grease says, showing a weak grin at how cheesy the line sounded.

Sobana Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:29 am

"Score!"

Nightshade finds some small pieces of paper hidden in Noir's mane and briefly reads over the papers for a bit then stashes them away in her own mane.

"What do you eat if not ponies?"

Nightshade attempts to brush the blood off Hector's face and claws with her hoof.

"Is this your first kill? It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Nightshade gives Hector a blood covered hug of comfort.

Knowledge:

Crystalite Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:21 pm

Hector tensed up, about to attack - nevermind that Nightshade was being rude, he was still quite agitated. He stopped himself though, and tried to relax and calm down.

"She's not dead - I didnt dig deep enough. But she will be soon if we don't get her somewhere," he explained, his voice still shaking, though his body started to relax as he picked the mare up, looking to Grease to lead the way.

sunbeam Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:29 pm

"Have you seen what this mare can do? I have a feeling she enjoyed the whole thing." Grease says drily, walking back down the stairs towards where they had left Anchors Away. "What are the odds that Anchors Away has been taken hostage?"

Crystalite Mon Nov 24, 2014 10:25 pm

"Five bits say she has," Hector said pessimisticaly, as he tried to force himself to relax more.

Sobana Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:48 am

"You know, we could just let her die. I'm sure it will save us trouble in the future."

She said in a way that was hard to tell if she was being serious or just joking around.

"I guess if whats-her-face is kidnapped we'll just have to save her as well. We might even get a bonus for it."

She chuckled to herself at the idea.

sunbeam Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:11 am

Grease rolls his eyes. But then, he never misses the chance to respond to a rhetorical question, either, so he kept his silence.

Sobana Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:30 am

Nightshade brings her hoof to her lip and taps it a few times in contemplation.

"So, like, are we done here? Because we didn't find who we were looking for nor the decoy. For that matter we didn't even fully search the temple. There could still be some much more stuff to loot for the museum. We just beat up the first pony we saw and we are just planning on leaving already?"

Her eyes trail up the the ceiling as she thinks more about it some more.

"Are we just securing the area until a survey team shows up or something? Or are we high tailing it out of here before the actual authorizes show up?"

sunbeam Thu Nov 27, 2014 12:03 pm

"I'm going to answer in those in reverse order because it will be a little more coherent." Grease says flatly. "We're in a jungle. There is no law here. The keep does have survey crews, but if Anchors Away already knew a shortcut in I'd bet they've already been here. Noir probably works alone, given her proclivity for dissecting minions. Anyone strong enough to keep her off of them probably would've attacked us during the ruckus. While I admit we haven't found Braynor, we've subdued one of his more dangerous associates, and if we can get this mare out of the real world and into a subterranean cell I'll sleep better at night. Also, you're the one with the magic mirror. Surveying is your job."

Fury of the Tempest Thu Nov 27, 2014 12:47 pm

Gearick stepped back away from the wand, saying. "I didn't solve the numbers, or lead us safely though the traps to reach it. Honestly I feel like I've contributed much less than I should of done as a member of STOMP... but that's inconsequential currently."

ZamuelNow Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:39 pm

Upon returning to the secret entrance, Anchors Away took one look at the group and said, "Oh no you don't. Not getting in this basket like that. Gonna need to clean off first. Got some stain remover." Coiling backwards, she used her tail fin to pull a tiny spray bottle from the depths of her hair. She Grease, Nightshade, and Hector a quick spritz, then put the spray bottle away. "By the way, when the blood starts to clump up, it'll itch like crazy. You may want to jump in the water real quick."

Crystalite Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:44 pm

Hector didn't have too many cuts, as far as he knew, but didn't resist the spritzing. He set gently set the unconscious Noir down in the basket. "Give her some too, she's bleeding pretty badly," he said quietly before leaping into the water for the trip back...

Checks:

ZamuelNow Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:53 pm

"Wait, what happens if she wakes up?"

Crystalite Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:16 pm

Hector heard the question, but too late - already in the water. He started down the tunnel, not as worried about the length: he knew how long it was now, and was better prepared. It was, oddly, harder going, but that was okay. He could endure this time.

That was what he did, wasn't it? Endure? He considered what he had recently done to Noir. He had wanted to murder her. He could have, even - there were quicker ways to do it that would have kept anyone from stopping him in time. Why hadn't he simply snapped her neck?

He thought back to the first time he had killed a rabbit. You were supposed to snap it's spine first before you tore in, so that it died painlessly. So clearly not simple predation instinct.

He then thought, more objectively, to his time in the Guard. He had seen action one time - during the little known Skirmish at the Border. His team went into battle against a group of griffon bandits who thought that the Guard cared about a silly thing like numerical disadvantage. They had beaten a group three times their own size; but not without cost. Hector remembered a particular moment: he had grabbed a griffon's neck and snapped it. But not Noir. So clearly not old training; the Guard taught efficiency, not brutality.

He settled on one last theory. He was angry. Noir had presened the hardest, longest, most frustrating fight in years - and he had lost himself along the way. She had found a button, and pressed it - knowingly or not, didn't matter. Hector realised - for a few moments, he had let him become the monster that he had perceived Noir to be. He didn't simply want to kill her: he had wanted to do it in as slow and agonizing a manner he could.

In the depths of the tunnel, he was oblivious to the tears running off his eye and into the surrounding water. He pushed ahead.

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