Smoke & Mirrors: The Defeat of the Hypnus
11/11/2006
10:55 AM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Brownstone -- Apartment B(#3427RAJh)
The lift opens out into the bottom right corner of the hallways and facing a wooden-doored closet that is painted with several geometric shapes of varying degrees of blue. From that point the hall goes two ways: left follows the bottom hallway where two bedroom doors are located as well as a two-part bathroom at the end (the sink and cabinets in one room, the toilet and shower/tub in the other), and straight ahead leads to the living room where a simple couch coverd in a cobalt blue cover, recliner that is covered similar to the couch, and a small entertainment center dominate. The top of the D-like halls is actually the dining room, small but functional, with a room at the top left of the apartment for a washer and dryer. The central hallway leads right through the kitchen at the heart of the apartment and can be reached from both the top and bottom hallways. There is even a portion of the kitchen wall missing where a countertop allows visual access to the living room.
The apartment is vibrant with color, all in shades of blues and in the same geometric patterns as the closet. There is a beige carpet in the main room and hardwood in the bathroom as well as tile in the kitchen. The cabinets in the kitchen now are painted in all primary colors of a light hue: yellow, blue, and red. There are some decorations on the walls, mostly drawings of Dillen's hand of Freya and Gretchen. Toys stay in a small trunk in one corner of the living room and it is evident that a toddler lives here. In the corner of the living room, is an old fashioned crib that was rescued from a Goodwill and painted with little animals and the like. Around the crib are drawings and mobiles of fanciful creatures, all hand done and mounted about the wall around the crib.
The apartment best resembles a D in the main structure of its hallways {+view floorplan}.
Contents:
Masao
Blackriver
Leslie
Cole
Dillen
Rose Box
Obvious exits:
Lift
Presently, there's a knock at the door. Leslie, dressed in a sleeveless mockneck sweater and a pair of jeans that she's obviously used to fight before, stnds outside, occasionally glances behind her as she waits, and some might swear she's nervous.
There comes a knock at the door, followed quickly by a voice from the otherside. "Pizza's here."
Katya is a bit behind Cole and Leslie, looking around like something might suddenly jump out and attack her.
Dillen replaces the fetish into his pocket and walks to the door. "Better not be anchovies." As he opens the door. "Hey all."
Good thing that there's recognizeable people at the door so Masao knows she's found the right house. Coming up to stand behind the group and noting the pervasive tension, she lifts a tight smirk. "All ashore that's goin' ashore?"
Cole looks over as he hears Masao's voice. "Welcome aboard. I call dibs on the sofa." Cole shuffles his way into the apartment. "Hey, Viking. Sorry, no anchovies this time."
Katya scoots inside as quick as she can and, once the door's closed, slips down into lupus. The Philodox then gives herself a shake, and begins padding around the room, sniffing out things and people.
Dillen steps back to allow entrance to everyone. "We will get the movie started soon. I was thinking "Sleepless in Seattle"... Or for the more hard core, "Underworld." He grins to all, maybe trying to break the tension some and boost morale. "Couch is Masao. I hear she's sleepy."
"We're still waiting on Helen to show up," Leslie remarks, stepping inside herself behind Katya. Once the door is closed, she breathes a sigh of relief and seems to be much more at her ease. "So, it is just me and Helen going after the creature when it puts in an appearance?"
Masao does indeed look a little bleary-eyed, hiding a yawn behind one hand as she shuffles in. "Har. Har. Itsa good thing I been up all night, then. Don' worry, I don't take up too much room an' I don't kick."
Blackriver pads a nervous circle around the room, clearly not liking her civilized surroundings. Lightning-rhya isn't here, she remarks grumpily, He disappeared. We only have one sleeper.
"No, no, you get the sofa. I'll take the floor. I'm just the Beta." Cole gives a grin. "The floor will be fine. Considering I tore up the couch the first time." He looks over to Dilen. "Underworld. I want to laugh at the werewolves there. They look like Gumbie gone mad." He settles down to the floor in a sitting position. "Only one sleeper?"
Leslie settles quietly into a chair to one side of the rom, apparently waiting for others to settle. She appears to be her uual composed and reserved self, but does break her silence long enough to observe, "Cole I expect that whoever is on the couch will tear it up regardless. Perhaps everyone sleeping should share the floor, out of kindness to Dilen's furniture."
Blackriver licks at her nose and shakes herself again. People are going to sleep to lure the spirits, while the others wait in the umbra to kill the dream-spirits. The sleepers were going to be Lightning-rhya and Leaves-None, but Lightning-rhya disappeared, so we need another sleeper. She glances towards Dillen and Cole. You two have the most bad dreams, one of you should sleep.
Masao finds the couch and takes up a spot at one end, reaching over to grab the pillow and hold it to her chest closely. "Just one? Joy." she mutters, glancing up at Leslie. "I can do floor, too. S'not like it's any different than what I'm used to."
Dillen scratches a little at his nose. "Okay. Need to tell you guys some stuff. Blackriver and I have a challenge in the mix as well. She leads a mission and then I lead a mission... Then the pack decides who is alpha. Since we are all here, take note. Thanks in advance for helping us out." He then looks to Blackriver and says it again on the pack link. Then he directs back to the others. "Yeah. One sleeper. I believe the rest of us are headed..." He pauses and looks to Blackriver. "I can take it. Sleeping, that is..." He reaches into his pocket and holds out a small fetish. "But Masao can take this. It should keep her from having the bad dreams."
Cole looks over to Dillen at Blackriver's statement. "I can do it if you want, Dillen. You don't need to see your family...well, yeah. Consider it an early Christmas present, or something." He shrugs. He listens to Dillen's announcement and nods.
Blackriver's ears prick forward in sudden interest and she trots towards Dillen, sniffing at the fetish in his hands. What does it do?
Leslie sits back, apparently waiting quietly for the rest to settle. She seems unusually reserved, even withdrawn, even for her, and seems content to wait in thoughtful silence.
Masao rubs the heel of one hand against her eyes and blinks, looking towards the fetish. "Really? How?" she asks with otherwise restrained curiousity, releasing some of her grip on the pillow.
Dillen lifts a brow towards Leslie. "You okay?" He then responds through the pack link to Blackriver about what the fetish does. Then to Cole. "No. I want to beat that thing." He grins to Cole. "I want to bring it down." He hands the fetish to Masao. "Just does. Grey gave it to me for Gretchen.
Cole shoots his packmate a grin. "Alright. Leave me the fun job, why don't you?" He relaxes with his back against the sofa.
Blackriver tilts her head to sniff the thing and then shrinks back as Dill hands in to Masao. We /need/ Leaves-None to have bad dreams. She points out. To lure the spirits. But, if Bloods-Bad lures the spirits, and maybe they will be distracted by the fetish, and be easier to kill. She wags her tail, seeming to find this a good plan, and then starts waking towards the bathroom mirror. Now we will go into the umbra and hide for when the spirits come. If Cycle-Breaker comes tell her we are there. She mentions to Dill as an afterthought.
A ghost of a smile tugs at the corners of Leslie's mouth, and she nods to Dillen, though she doesn't drop the reserve. "What, killing this thing isn't fun for you? You're losing it, Cole."
Masao takes the fetish in her free hand and draws it close, peering at it thoughtfully. "Thanks, Dillen. And thanks Grey." Licking her lips quickly, she settles back against the couch and takes a few slow, deep breaths.
Cole shrugs, rolling his shoulders as he pushes himself up. "Oh no, I think I could use some killing in my diet. Say, how's Bittersown doing?" He follows after his Alpha toward the bathroom.
Dillen moves over to a chair and settles down in it. "Let's do this." He closes his eyes, beginning some deep breathing as he starts to relax enough to try and fall asleep.
"If Masao isn't going to dream, we could probably use her help out there," Leslie comments as she starts to follow her packmates to the bathroom. "We've never gotten close enough to this thing to find out what it can do."
Masao curls over on her side on the couch, shifting the pillow to beneath her head and clutching the fetish to her chest. Cracking a broad yawn, she closes her eyes and tries to relax.
Underneath the full moon, the city in the Realm begins its quiet preparations for sleep. Dillen and Masao, when the fetish is once more activated, make their makeshift beds. One by one, the other members of Wildfire cross through the Gauntlet. It is thick here, very thick. So thick that even Blackriver the lupus, more attuned to the spiritworld than most Garou, finds herself having a bit of difficulty crossing. Leslie is marginally better even, and it is her who detects the slightest twinges of something Wrong in the nearby Patternweb. Cole. He is... Stuck. But decisions must be made... to cross? Or to return to the Realm?
[You paged Cole with 'Being Caught in the Gauntlet is not fun. If you've never felt the feeling before, it's like being frozen over with liquid nitrogen. Your heart wants to stop cold, but it's also still 'beating'. But it's also this beating that alerts the Pattern Spiders nearby to your presence. You are Caught in the web. And they are, your spirit can feel it, coming for you.'.]
Blackriver flicks her ears in annoyance and pads over towards the stuck Fianna. She grabs hold of a pant leg then and tries to pull him through.
Once across the Gauntlet, Leslie is more openly on edge than she'd been in the Realm -- focused, firmly controlled, and wary. Perhaps it is this that alows her to slide through the Gauntlet so easily, but once there, she stops immediately and looks around, and abruptly looks back to her packmates. "Guys...Cole? Aw, &#@$^."
When the pack arrives, it's only to find the serpentine form of their totem waiting for them. ~You are missing one,~ Ember replies, arching her neck in annoyance.
Cole emotes a feeling of extreme discomfort and more than a little nervousness over the pack's link. ~'s fucking cold! And the spiders are coming. Little help?~
On the other side of the Gauntlet, the faintest outline of the Brownstone's bricks, one by one, can be made out with a stark redder-than-usual color. The pack's totem spirit floats there in the middle of the apartment's Shadow - no more than a shell of just its walls and floor. Its ceiling is semi-transparent even, looking up towards the sky where the light of Luna's full face shines down from the celestial heavens. That, however, shouldn't be their concern. Their concern is a trio of Pattern Spiders, which Ember can sense better than most, picking their way towards a struggling Cole. Blackriver is the first to grab onto the Fianna's spirit with her own. It is, perhaps, by their attunement as a pack to each other that helps pull the Fianna through at a most excrutiatingly slow pace. By the time Cole 'pops' into the Umbra side, feeling like an frozen fish covered in olive oil ready for the roast, the Pattern Spiders have reached the building and approach the Garou and Wyvern spirit. With a glowing multitude of blue eyes, they seem to eye, and not eye at the same time, the group that has disturbed the webs of the area.
And yes, luckily, Cole's pants are kept on.
[You paged Dillen and Masao with 'Having trouble sleeping, you two. It's because of the full moon, and being Garou, the tendency to want to do stuff on the Full keeps minds from calming. The fetish you can feel working, but it is a minor warding touch at the moment.'.]
Blackriver stands still, staring wearily back at the spiders, and hoping against hope that they don't attack.
As her packmate pulls the struggling Cole through the Gauntlet, Leslie eyes the approaching Pattern Spiders warily, shifting up to warform and placing herself between her packmates and the oncoming spiders. ~Ember is here, thank Gaia.~ She watches the Pattern Spiders, not interfering yet but ready to defend her packmates.
Dillen stirs a little, uncomfortable in his trying to get to sleep. "Fuck." He mutters out and twists his body, trying to sleep and get the spirit to come.
Cole shivers as he's pulled through. Though its not a physical cold, he's still clutching his arms across his chest. "Sweet G-g-gaia." Then, when the pattern spiders are noticed, he balkily shifts up toward Crinos.
Ember coils herself in the air as the Pattern Spiders approach, presenting herself in as clear a threat as she can, wings spread.
Masao sighs and uncurls a bit, face wrinkling in a frown as she also tries to attain sleep. Making a little noise, she turns her face to the back of the couch and buries it under one arm. "Think happy thoughts..." she murmurs.
In addendum to the physical threat, Ember makes herself even clearer. *Leave us, Weaverlings, this is none of your concern.*
Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. While certain parts of Cole aren't happy, no doubt, the Garou pair in the Realm toss and turn and maybe even run a few circles in place mentally before finally curling up and settling down. Not sleeping and physically exhausting one's body tends to help. Eyelids close, and Masao is eventually able to doze off unconcernedly. Dillen, on the other hand, with his mind too occupied with just trying to get to sleep to get That Darn Spirit to come, continues to stir between that half awake, half asleep state.
The Pattern Spider trio don't pull back. Cole's shift causes one to turn towards him, and he gets that sensation of the spirit's blank staring and unexplicable calculation. The pack's totem's threatening appearance and 'words' garner a response. *Our concern is Here.* The spiders all seem to answer at once, at exactly the same time, their eyes glowing in exactly the same pattern. One breaks off to climb up the small, thin web that spans what one might muse is the bathroom wall on the other side, and starts fixing the rip there. The third spider remains inert, still facing the Garou and the spirit.
Blackriver's ears slick back in worry. ~Repair your web and do not harm us, and we will not harm you.~ She tells the spirits, not that they can understand her.
Cole's shivers are replaced by a heady tension as the spirit speaks to the pack. When Ember translates the message for the pack, he looks to Blackriver. ~We leave them be, then?~ He nods a moment later. ~Fine.~ Though he sounds unhappy about it. Ember merely waits, staring intently at the trio as they stare at the pack.
Blackriver glances up at Cole. We cannot risk drawing lots of them to us. We are not fighting spiders tonight. We are fighting Wyrm things.
Still Treeclimber makes no move yet to attack the pattern spiders, seemingly content to wait and watch. As Blackriver speaks, she nods agreement. ~We wait. I do not wish a fight with these things, not yet. We'll have to be fast.~ She glances up at the spirit, then returns her gaze to the spiders.
The Pattern Spiders continue on their business with an efficiency and neutrality that can only be admired or despised. The hole is fixed within the next five minutes of passing. Five whole minutes of just standing there, underneath the full moon. Just beyond the half-translucent walls of the brick Brownstone's shadow, the city's spirit has only begun to rouse with its 'nocturnal' beings.
In the Realm, with Masao asleep and Dillen fighting his own mini battle, the clock continues to tick. It takes another ten minutes before the Get mentally slaps himself into silence, and KOs his restlessness to fall into a snoring pile of galliard. The fetish between them glows ever so slightly.
Dillen flops backwards in the chair, mouth wide open and snoring quite well now.
Blackriver is patient enough, considering the moon, and when the spiders are done with the business and on their way she snaps into action. Shift into a small form and hide. We will wait until the spirits come, and then we will attack. That said, she looks around for a good place to be inconspicuous in.
Howls-For-Glory shifts restlessly from foot to foot, watching the spiders go about their business. Not entirely able to surpress his nature in the light of the full moon, he keeps up the chatter over the pack link. ~Works for me. I just want to kill these fuckers so I can dream without tearing apart the pillows some night. 'd make Ellie alot more comfortable too.~ Ember, for her part, seems far patient. She merely cranes her neck about to keep a watch on the area. *If the Wyrm-things are going to come, they will come soon. Bloods-Bane sleeps.*
Treeclimber crouches down in the Crinos form as she waits, all four appendages on the ground and tail thumping with irritation as she waits. When they are finally gone, she snarls softly, ~About fucking time.~ At Blackriver's order, she drops down into lupus and seeks a place to be inconspicuous. ~Howls-for-Glory, remind me when this is over that I want to talk to your girlfriend and apologize for what happened at your party.~
Masao's dreaming mind 'wakes' into what looks like Harbor Park, though the colors are perhaps a bit brighter to her sight than reality would allow. Stretching and sitting up from a prone position in otherwise lush grass, she looks around with a smile and lets the breeze ruffle her hair.
Howls-For-Glory drops to Lupus as well, following the cue of his pack. ~Think I want to leave you alone with my girlfriend,~ he asks as he hnkers down.
Ember rises as much as the confines of the 'room' allows, floating hopefully out of sight.
Treeclimber bares her teeth in a snarl, and there's a flash of anger across the pack link. ~She's your girlfriend, sheep-fucker, and you're my packmate. I don't touch other people's property, and don't suggest again that I do.~
Howls-For-Glory's response is tinted with apology across the link. ~Relax, I was playing with you. Just be glad you're not Dillen, of you'd have gotten worse.~
~Bloods-Bane gets worse every night of his life.~ Still, Treeclimber settles down, apparently mollified, and even letting her tongue loll out. ~Forgive me, perhaps I am a litle too tense. Your mate is not ready to deal with any of us unless you are present. I wouldn't want to exclude you from such a meeting -- she probably won't even say hello if you're not right next to her.~
From the moment the Spiders are gone until the Garou find their places to hide, nothing goes on. Once Ember is out of sight, by means of going up through a bit of a break in the web above that outlines the brownstone's second floor, things go quiet again. Well, quiet in the realm of the spirit. Not over the pack's link.
By virtue of being connected to the packlink, Dillen's mind gladly connects to a dream involving his pack, first. Masao's dreams of a clean Harbor Park go uninterrupted for some time, allowing her subconscious to play out its fantasy.
Another good ten minutes pass, if anyone happens to be counting them. The two sleepers are well into their dreams and oblivious to the world around them, though Masao might find the wind in hers to sound an awful lot like snoring on occassion. In the Shadow, though, it isn't long before it just feels like at the edges of the eyes on all sides, the shadows are getting a little longer.
Blackriver's body stiffen and she /stares/ at the growing shadows, like a cat about to pounce on a mouse. Still, she doesn't move a hair, used to the patience and waiting involved in hunting down prey.
Dillen's dream is much different than Masao. He's sitting in the middle of a white room, glaring around. He screams out, "Come get me you Sonovabitch!" He rises to his feet. "C'mon you freak of nature. Come get me!" He's yelling to the ceiling, clenching his fists.
Masao turns her head slightly at the odd sound of the wind, but shrugs and continues on her little pretty-trip. Getting up and dusting herself off she ambles towards the river. She passes trees that are hale and whole in their thrust towards a blue sky with little...fluffy...clouds. Insulin shot, anyone?
As Ember watches on with the patience that only reptiles can summon up so easily, Howls-for-Glory shows his eagerness to get moving. He hunkers down, the muscles of his jaws clenching tight. (~Good. C'mon, you little freakshows.~)
( It begins. ) There's an unmistakable anticipation and pleasure in the Fury's pack-link comment. Her body is still and silent, one ear spastically flicking and a ail that flops from side to side the only things betraying her tension. ( Hope Dillen doesn't hurt himself once he starts dreaming. )
A beautiful butterfly flitters through the sky in Masao's dream, landing with less than a feathersoft brush right on the tip of her nose. She crosseyed stare to it causes its iridescent wings to flutter once, twice. No, no nightmares here.
Dillen's dream plays out quite oddly. He screams out in the middle of his room. Then from 'behind' him, a door whooshes open and a group of very large, very muscular men in white coats, all with the faces of Brom, rifle in quite businesslike. "That's enough!" grunts one of them, grabbing the galliard in a choke-hold so that he just can't call out anymore. Another one of the Broms, along with his exact twin, unzips a straight jacket. The galliard finds that there's no shifting in this place. A Brom in the back flicks a finger at a hypodermic needle filled with a clear fluid.
The shadows continue to lengthen, focusing upon the apartment. While Blackriver can see this phenomenon, there is no other spirit in view. Cole too, senses the shadow continue to thicken greatly. Leslie, though, the Fury suddenly finds her pack-link to be cut away from her. The room plunges into darkness as for her eyes only, a pack of large Wyrm banes bust down one side of the brick wall of the Brownstone. She's fought them before, somewhere in her past. She can remember destroying them too. But they are alive and well, a pair of them. Huge. Powerful. There is no way she could take them on by herself. But her pack... she feels nothing from them.
Blackriver, feeling nothing amiss, continues to watch, eyes strapped on the shadows.
Howls-For-Glory likewise continues his vigil. The lengthening of the shadows causes his hackles to rise. (I don't like this. They should have come already.) Ember merely emotes an urging to remain patient and quiet.
Masao blinks a bit and stops walking, giggling a little at this lovely little addition. Her hands reach for the butterfly only to stop before touching it.
Dillen fights as much as he possibly can. The Broms are aimed at with fists and flying legs. "Fuckers. I want the damn wolf. The mirrored eyes. Get off me. You don't matter. Whatever you do doesn't matter. BRING ME THE WOLF!"
Without warning, a Garou primal scream erupts from the corner where Leslie had been hiding. The Fury slams straight up into the warform, quite as if she'd gone mad, and stares intently at one wall of the Brownstone, rising panic over the pack link like a slap in the face. ~NO! What did I do? This can't be!~ She looks for all the world like she's preparing ti fight...the wall.
Blackriver's body tenses and she lets out a questioning call, walking forward a few feet from where she's been 'hiding.' Concern beams over the packlink.
(Treeclimber? I'm fairly sure the wall forgives you...) Howls-for-Glory cocks his head, then calls upon one of his Gifts to try to make contact with his packmate.
Sao's hand cup about the butterfly, and in the action it stays there. Wings beat twice again, light glittering off microscopic rainbow scales. Butterfly dust - almost the same as pixie dust - shimmers off and tickles the Gnawer's nose. Her dream continues quite uninterrupted. Even the wind has stopped snoring.
Dillen's fight is a futile one. Against this many strongly armed Get-of-Fenris lookalikes, he's wrestled down kicking and screaming to the floor of the too-bright white room. His face is crushed against the linoleum, pressed so hard his jaw aches, and his tongue swipes at the bland tasting tile. The jacket comes down, and he can feel his arms being forced into the arms of the suppressive clothing. His legs are sat upon. Behind him, he can hear the soft cries of his wife Freya. He can feel the big, wide eyes of Gretchen staring at him.
The two uncaught packmates of Treeclimber's send their thoughts, but they only feel the Fury's rising panic. Blackriver paces out to see her packsister yelling at the translucent wall. There's...nothing there. Cole's Gift links to Leslie's mind. In a flash, he can see them too. Two huge banes, powerfully so and radiating Rage and taint. They approach Leslie, who looks on the verge of a Fox frenzy. The wall that was unbroken is now in pieces, a gaping hole to Cole's eyes where there was brick before. Behind the pair of banes, a red-tinted cityscape littered with freeflying banes. Somewhere in the distance, Leslie and Cole can hear, the dulcet tones. Warbling, both sweet and so sour at once it's maddening. A Nexus Crawler's song. Ember it seems, is nonethewiser to the plight of her charges below.
The Get Galliard goes on with the battle for a short time. Then he stops. "Bring. ME. THE. WOLF." He relaxes for a bit and then moves to burst into one big bolt of strength to try and throw off the jacket, shift, do anything to get away from the Broms that hold him. "NO!!!" As he does everything he can to erupt up and into something to fight. "THE WOLF!"
Howls-for-Glory's hackles rise instantly, as if he'd stuck a penny in a lightsocket. ~Wyrm-things!~ He rises into Crinos, even as the song of the Crawler starts to resonate. ~The Crawler George!~ He strides forward to stand beside Treeclimber. ~The others can't see what we can!~
Masao lowers her hands to let the butterfly go if it wants, trying desperately not to twitch her nose. She blinks a few times as her eyes threaten to -stay- crossed, but otherwise keeps an eye on her visitor.
For her part, Ember hisses in consternation. *There is nothing there! Don't be fooled!*
Blackriver instinctually bulks up into hispo as Cole calls out the threat turning to stare at the wall, but then the words of Ember calm her. ~Calm, calm! Nothing is wrong! It must be the tainted chimera-spirits, they are giving you dreams even though you are awake!~
Over the pack link, the Fury's panic gradually is replaced with bleak, black despair -- the sort that presages suicide. She draws a couple of deep breaths. ~Cole. I'm sorry. Tell Ember...I'm sorry. For whatever it was I did.~ With that, she leaps at the wall, claws first -- in the prison of her mind, Cole can see the bane she is leaping at -- nobody jumps that way unless they have a deathwish.
Blackriver can't see what they see, but she's not about to let her packmate attack a wall. With rage-boosted speed, she runs towards Leslie, trying to tackle her and stop her from going forward. ~Do not listen to them!~ She bellows at the Fury. ~Do not listen to the Hypnus! They are showing you lies!~
Howls-For-Glory's jaws crack open. ~Tell her yourself, Fury!~ The Fianna also leaps forward to stop her. While he sees the Bane as clearly as his packmate and knows the threat, his first concern is to stop the suicidal charge. ~Let it come to you!~
Masao is still blissfully, ignorantly, experiencing her lovely saccharine sundae of a dream. The small cotton candy clouds in her sky part, revealing a cartoon yellow sun that shines brightly and merrily down upon Harbor Park's pristine grasses. The butterfly lifts off once her hands lower, flittering with the light breeze up on towards the baby blue sky.
Dillen's stop only brings a brief relaxation, and more buckling of the jacket around him. It's almost completely on, when he bursts out again. Though he manages to kick off the Broms and surprise them briefly, the only direction he can wiggle himself towards is further into the sanitary, white room. He still can't shift, no matter how hard he tries. "Dillen, Stop!" sobs his wife. Gretchen begins to cry as well. "Please, you're hurting yourself!" "Get him!" cries the Brom with the needle, bracing and blocking the door, the exit, the way out. The orderlies jump to tackle, hundreds of pounds of weight piling on the young galliard.
Blackriver shifts to hispo, but still there's nothing there. At least it seems that way. Leslie leaps all claws and fangs towards the wall of the umbral apartment, and tears through the Pattern webs, claws catching and slowing. Just as she does so, Blackriver leaps onto the Fury's back, tackling her down. Cole can see it all. He still retains his semblance of sanity, but he can see the banes. He can hear all that Leslie hears. The bane she attacks stands there and takes it like, well, like a wall. The Fianna can see his packmate's claws tear into the creature, leaving a huge gash that he can see through to the red skies beyond. The other bane leaps and tackles the Fury down, but it cries out, and sounds like Blackriver telling Leslie not to listen. Cole, Ember and Blackriver finally see it. There, just beyond the ripped open wall of web, is a three-foot tall, fox-faced creature with bat and bird wings, deer's hooves, and a snake for a tail. Night-dark, light absorbing waves of shadow radiate like smoke off its body. Its eyes reflect everything it 'sees' - mirrors, both.
Ember floats downward, trying to interpose herself roughly where Treeclimber is charging. *Nothing is here!* To illustrate her point, she whips her tail about in the empty space. When the spirit finally reveals itself, she bares her teeth at it in a hiss. *There! Kill the Wyrm spirit!* Howls-for-Glory hears the 'second Bane' as his Alpha and forces himself to leave her. ~It's a vision, Treeclimber! There is the real thing!~ One claw points toward the chimera-like creature.
Dillen is absolutely thrashing now. He tries to spin, kick, bite... Anything to keep the Broms from getting him. The cries of Freya and Gretchen only push him further into his rage. "This is not REAL! BRING ME THE FUCKING WOLF!" The more he tries to fight it outward in the dream, the more he tries to fight it in his mind as well. "Let. Me. Go."
Masao smiles in delight and continues her walk down to the river, humming to herself and drifting through the serene sanity of her dream-world.
Blackriver stays on top of Leslie, head turning towards the spirit. She gives out a low growl, fur bristling, and then in one smooth motion bounds towards the spirit, claws ready - time for it to die.
Ember finally spots the Hypnus beyond the wall, working its magic on her pack. With a screech of rage, the wyvern dives for the creature. She snaps forward with her jaws the same moment, hoping to destroy the beast outright.
Masao's happy-go-lucky skies suddenly start to darken. Mr. GrumpyCloud comes to play, it seems, with his wet conflict and rumbling voice. As if in total protest to the sugary sweetness of the dream, a lightning bolt zaps out of the sky and totally fries the butterfly that was flittering into indistinguishably black, ashen bits. It's like getting kicked in the face, it's So Sad. And Angering. Grr.
Dillen's thrashing results in his face getting smashed back onto the floor. While it doesn't hurt in this nightmarish dream, it does keep him from moving too much. Freya and Gretchen sob helplessly. Amidst all the thrashing, he bites a stray finger of one of the Broms, eliciting a yelp and a hard punch to his face. The same rough hand yanks at his hair, forcing the chin up, exposing the throat. The Brom with the needle finally approaches. "You need to let /yourself/ go. Let this werewolf nonsense be. You're hurting them. Hurting your wife, and your daughter. See? Look at them." The needle-wielding Brom moves out of the way, allowing the galliard to see through the glass portal that's on the door, enhanced with crisscrossing wire. It's a mental asylum room. He's the patient. His wife and baby are on the other side, sobbing at the state of their beloved husband and father.
In the Shadow, Blackriver's tackle down onto Leslie smashes her face first against the cold floor. It knocks the wind out of the Fury Philodox, but it also seems to knock some sense into her. In the near instant following, the Fang alpha of Wildfire charges forward and attacks the Hypnus standing just outside of the apartment's torn wall. It makes no cries, but the Silver Fang gets the first hit despite the spirit's dodge. As Blackriver tears in, she can feel the resistance of the spirit's essence, knowing she's caused some damage. The next instant, Ember the wyvern spirit swoops down to attack the lone chimerical one. She pits her Rage agaist that of the spirit's and together they seem equal in power. Seemingly. For Cole, as Leslie goes down, the illusion seems to waver. The banes that seemed so powerful gain a bit of translucent static to them. Perhaps it isn't real at all, just as everyone keeps shouting it to be.
That bit of wavering is all Howls-for-Glory needs. He dashes forward to join his totem and Alpha in attacking the Hypnus. Finally given reign, his Rage turns him into a ginsu machine as he claws at the creature.
"It's not REAL." The Get is chomping and still fighting as much as he can. "And you will die." He says wit ha grin to the Broms. "The pack is coming. You will go down. You WILL NOT hurt my family again." And he tries to burst up once again into a warform to rip the faces off the dream.
Masao's mouth drops open in shock at the event, hands having come up to shield her face at the bright flash from the bolt. "What? No! What the -fuck- did you do that for?" she cries out, voice shifting from disbelief to anger with an inhaled breath midway. She looks up into the darkening sky and grits her teeth as her hands curl into fists.
Ember, finding herself seemingly matched with the spirit, remains confidently where she is. The war-spirit continues to put her spirit-stuff against the Hypnus'.
Blackriver chomps down hard on the spirit, and doesn't let go, twisting the strange black 'flesh' underneath her to drag her teeth across it's skin, or whatever it is that covers it.
WHAM! Treeclimber goes down in a pile of bane, hiting the ground -hard-. She lies there for a moment unmoving, but as Blackriver springs away, she looks after her, the form melting from that of hated Wyrm-thing to the form of packmate. All of a sudden, she goes completely limp and remains on the floor for a second, gasping for breath.
Masao's dream starts to rain on her. Mr. GrumpyCloud doesn't seem to really care, being ... well.. Mr. GrumpyCloud. Fat, wet droplets splatter on her face, in her eyes like the cloud were spitting on her. Sptoo, sptoo.
Dillen's insistence that everything isn't real only earns an indifferent "Hmph" from the Brom with the needle, and in another moment his head is yanked up and neck jabbed with the needle. He can feel the drugs being pumped into him, slowing him. He can feel the willpower draining away, his mentality to fight bleeding off. "There's no escaping from this place," whispers one of the orderlies, it's no longer clear which one. "Shh, hush now. We've got you. Just lie there calmly now, boy." No access to his crinos form. No access to anything. Even his wife and child are being taken away, and he's powerless to do anything about it. Maybe, he really is crazy.
The battle rages on in the Umbra. Angry forces pit against one lone bane, and it isn't long before claws, fangs, and spirit Rage rip into the Hypnus. It fights back with futility, sending a harsh cry up that screeches into the Umbral air. That too, jars Leslie out of her illusion as the Hypnus' magic is broken entirely under it being assaulted. Within moments of the first attack, the spirit is reduced to a ragged 'mess' denoting its diminshing power. It turns, mirror eyes flashing as it connects with Cole's mind. The Rage, it burns so hot. Hot enough to make him burst into a berserk frenzy, that originally red filled sky from the illusion coming back and filling his eyes with a haze as the Beast bursts forth from its chains within him. From behind Ember, the Wyvern is struck with a hot force that is obviously a second spirit's ire being focused upon her. A second Hypnus, floating in the air, has chosen to attack from above. Spirit pitted against spirit, the mirror-eyed fox chimera stares at the battle going on below, at its twin being reduced to spirit shreds.
Dillen starts to fall into the deeper sleep as his willpower begins to seep out like sand through an hourglass. "No..." He shakes his head, trying to keep it within him. "NO... Not... REeal." He kicks out again, trying to regain some kind of control of this place... This Asylum. "FREYA!" He calls out, grasping at anything to ground himself and get a hold of the dream and himself.
Howls-For-Glory's silence turns into a frothing bellow as Howls-for-Glory's Beast takes the wheel. He lunges without concern for his own well-being for the weakening Hypnus. He's a flailing cloud of fangs and teeth, intent only on destroying the object of his ire.
Treeclimber shudders for a moment more -- if a Crinos could laugh helplessly, she would be. As that's a little difficult, she simply leaps to her feet and races towards where her packmates and totem fight, aiming her ire at the second spirit in a desperate effort to protect her pack totem. Curiously, though, the feeling across the packlink is that of almost delight.
Ember's eyes seem to glow from within in anger as she feels the attack of the second spirit. She climbs up to meet her new foe, lashing out with her anger once again.
Masao growls at the rain and shouts back, "Don't make me come up there you pissy ass little cloud! This is MY dream!" Yeah. Shouting at a cloud. That's...definitely weird.
Blackriver steps back to let Howls-for-Glory kill the Hypnus a thousand times. At least he isn't attacking a packmate. Then she too leaps to attack the second spirit, calling on a gift to help her reach it.
Mr. GrumpyCloud responds to Sao with a rumble of discontent, but eventually he 'huffs' a bit of wind at her and floats on. The sun appears again, bright and shiny yellow as ever. Still, the bits of butterfly aren't anywhere to be found. On the upside... a rainbow has appeared in the sky, colored almost exactly like that of the butterfly's wings.
Freya's sobbing voice starts to fade, as well as the sound of the orderlies leaving the room. Everything in Dillen's dream is going away as even the white light darkens. The dream ends on its own, leaving him in the still black of unconsciousness.
Can't say these Hypnus are tough at all. Not compared to the warriors of Gaia. Cole's berserk frenzy, in retrospect, should've been instigated while the bane was further away. However, it's too late for that now, as ten talons rip through its last essence and the first Hypnus, the one of Rage, 'dies' in a dissolving black smoke that smells like burning sulfur. The second Hypnus up in the air dodges out of the way of Ember's attack, sending one of its own back as well. What it doesn't seem to have expected is Blackriver leaping up and claws catching onto its smokey form. Oddly enough, this brings the flying spirit down to a level that Leslie can reach, and the Fury's claws tear 'open' the spirit to leave a big void-like gash from its head to the snakelike tail at the end. It cries out again. Somewhere around, Pattern Spiders are gathering again after sensing the web that was recently repaired in the area being disturbed. The Weaver's work is never done.
Blackriver barely has time to register what else is going on, but somewhere she gets that the other spirit has been destroyed. ~Drain its gnosis!~ She yells. And then, since Cole isn't exactly in a position to do that, she leaves the second Hypnus for Ember and Leslie to finish, and dashes over to the first dead spirit, to eats its yucky spirit-matter.
Dillen lies in the chair, not snoring now and slowly sliding down towards the floor.
"That's more the fuck like it. Pissy ass cloud." Masao mutters, shaking her fist at the departing cloud and directing a raspberry at its departing...back? The rainbow chases away the anger, though, leaving it to float off on the breeze after the cloud. Realm-side, a slight frown on her face smoothes out and the Ragabash makes a happy little noise in her sleep.
It's as if the cloud of red that filled the Fianna's world suddenly lifts. The frenzy abates when the beast dissipates. Howls-for-Glory has to spend a moment collecting his wits, shaking tiny shreds of essence from his claws. ~I'll help!~ He's a few seconds slower, but tries to help in draining away the essence of the thing so it can't respawn.
Finish that second Hypnus? Great idea! Treeclimber does precisely that, aiming her claws and teeth to finish the fight quickly before the Pattern Spiders arrive and keeping the creature if possible between herself and Ember in order to limit its escape options.
Ember, seeing the creature brought down to an easier level, rises into the air above the second Hypnus. With a wailing screech, she descends down on the thing like a spear straight from Heaven. Only this spear is tipped with teeth driven by Rage.
Dillen slips off the chair and onto the floor in an uncomfortable and contorted mass on the floor.
Masao's dream continues on with the happiest of its thirty-one flavors. One wonders why it didn't start raining Skittles and the Columbia hasn't turned into a Wonka-esque chocolate yet. Dillen's ending dream, though it leaves him completely passed out and in a state of ignorant blackness to what's going on everywhere else, has also left him with a quickened pacing heart. That, and the Get is sprawled all over the Gnawer in the Realm in situations that people would find most compromising from a tribal point of view. Get? Looking Cute? Gnawers? Getting along /with/ the Get? No freakin' way.
In the Umbra, that first Hypnus' essence is sucked into Blackriver with speed. Though it feels sludgey to start, it soon becomes only pure spirit essence. The second Hypnus fights back only briefly - it can only do so much against claws and talons leveled. The killing blow comes from above, though, as Ember's form glows a slight Red at its forceful smash of Rage against the dark creature. The Wyvern actually passes through into the ground like it were water, reddish essence splashing out in a concussive circle of power like ripples over a concrete pond. The second Hypnus is slain, its essence also smoking away with that nasty sulfuric smell.
Blackriver looks slightly sickened by the sludgy essence, but manages to stagger to her feet and drunkenly makes her way over to the second spirit to drain its gnosis too.
Cole earns his name tonight, lifting his muzzle to let out a cry of victory as the first Hypnus is siphoned away by his Alpha. As the two other members of the pack pin the creature and dismember it, he darts over to help in draining its spirit as well. Ember strains to rise again to join the Garou.
Masao rolls over slightly in her sleep and flings one arm out limply. The limb arcs slowly through the air to land softly on the top of Dillen's head. The blissfully cute expression on the sleeping Gnawer's face just adds to the tableau.
Having brought down the second Hypnus, Treeclimber steps back and drops back down to homid, shaking her hands. Her eyes remain on Ember, her expression respectful and even awestruck as she watches the Wyvern spirit, having seemingly forgotten everything around her.
Blackriver stops in front of the defeated spirit to look up at Ember as well, lowering her tail as a sign of respect to the wyvern-spirit.
The plague of the chimerical twins is brought to an end with a bang and a howl from Howls-For-Glory. One wouldn't recommend staying too long however, as more than just three Pattern Spiders are converging on the scene. Already, some have leapt with small silken strands behind them draping off and have started repairing the damages made along the building side. More still, are coming from across the street. The second Hypnus' essence is drained away by first the Fury, and then Ember returns from the splashing followthrough made. The Wyvern seems to just slip out of the ground when the spirit rises, a war-cry roaring from its throat that makes the spiders pause.
In the Realm, the Get and Gnawer continue to sprawl against each other, as kittens on a bed. Only this is Garou on a floor.
Dillen lays there like a limp Get should. His face is smooched into Masao, almost like kissing her cheek. He is out like a light.
Ember puts her head forth, and it looks as if she's drinking in the essence of the fallen Hypnus. Taking in the lifesblood of the spirit, she lets out a roar. *Quickly, through the Gauntlet! Good hunting, my children!*
Blackriver dips her head in respect to Ember, and then leads the way back to the mirror, and again through the Gauntlet and back to the realm.
Masao stirs only a little as her dream starts to fade out, her subconscious wanting to hang on to that happy place a little while longer.
Howls-For-Glory follows his Alpha after trotting up to Ember and butting his head against her once. And then it's to the Gauntlet with them.
The war-cry of the spirit seems to shake Leslie out of her trance, and she, too, bows low to the spirit before turning and following her packmates across the Gauntlet. It's not till she's on theother side that she stares into the mirror, looking more than a little shaken.
Blackriver shakes herself a little after crossing over, and bops Leslie supportively with her nose. Then she strides victoriously out of the bathroom, head held high to see.... well. Blackriver blinks and stares at the two on the floor, before slowly padding over to wake them up. Ew, wet doggy nose.
As if to make up for his difficulty in crossing the first time, Cole finds it so much easier with the help of his Alpha. The first thing he sees when he enters the room is the pair sleeping on the ground. He rises into Homid. "No, no Blackriver. Please. Let me have this moment. Please." He even turns on Perusasion to help his case. He looks like a kid in a toy store. Where the toys are all free.
Dillen still lies there, he's unconscious and unable to defend himself from the ribbing he is gonna get. Really. It's not his fault. The dream spirits made him do it... And one cracktastic GM.
You paged the room with 'Spirit qualities wise, what you've learned from fighting these things: The Hypnus were chimerical shaped banes, released during the hospital explosion. They aren't designed to fight. They're designed to manipulate minds. (You could say they were from the psychward of the hospital. Not a happy place. Lots of Mr. GrumpyClouds.) As such, they were very intelligent for a spirit of their power level (high Gnosis). Leslie got a taste of their ability to do mind manipulating, creating illusions that are designed to break down people's willpower, or make them angry, or both.'.
Masao twitches a little bit as the voices begin to intrude on her sleepy mind. She makes a small, totally uncharacteristic mewling sound and shifts her feet back and forth a few times.
Blackriver stops in her task, looks up at Cole, and goes 'huh?'
Cole's grey eyes are alight. "Okay, I've got it locked in my memory. Wake him up, I want to see this."
Blackriver pokes Masao's face with her cold, wet nose, and makes a loud huffing noise.
Presently, Leslie comes wandering out of the bathroom, and stops dead at what she sees, as if trying to process the tableau on the floor. "Oh sweet mother Gaia..." An arrested look crosses her features and sits there like a naughty child. (Cole, tell me I'm not seeing this.)
Oh. Abrupt intrusion of reality and it's COLD and WET! Masao's hand, the one on Dillen's head, raises up and flails blindly about her head for a moment. "Nnnnng! G'way, fuckin' p'ssy cloud..." she slurs as her eyes crack open to see Blackriver. Then she gradually becomes aware of the state of things around her. First thing she notices is the feeling of something pressed into her face which causes her to turn her head and...*squish*. Eyes snap wide open and the shriek she lets out is enough to wake. The. Dead.
Blackriver's ears prick forward in alarm, and she hastily backs up a step, looking more and more confused as each second ticks by.
(You're never going to let him hear the end of it, are you?) A slow grin begins to form across Leslie's face as she wanders over to Blackriver. (Blacriver, can you hear me?) she calls tentatively across the link.
Blackriver angles her head to look up at Leslie and indicates a yes, along with some confusion as to why she's asking.
(No. No I'm not. I'm going to savor this for a long, long time.) Cole clears his throat. "Dillen, Freya's going to be awfully upset about this."
Leslie sends a brief flash across the packlink of what she experienced -- the packlink going completely dark, just as if she'd lost it -- by way of explanation to Blackriver. (Good. I....) She watches Cole wake Dillen up, crossing her arms across her chest. (I thought I'd been thrown out.)
Blackriver gives a yawn and shakes her fur out. We killed the two spirits, but there may be more. If anyone keeps getting the wyrm-dreams we will do this again. She then turns to Leslie, shocked by something. The Hypnus, they are the mirror-lady's bad pups, they make illusions. She offers in way of explanation.
The scream to wake the dead does indeed prove enough to wake the Get. "No, Freya. No. It's okay." As he moves to wrap his arms around his wife and comfort her... Or who he thinks is his wife. An eye cracks open and he sits bolt upright. "What the FUCK?" And he's off Masao like butter off a Teflon frying pan. "Fuck. What the... Fuck?" He shakes his head and curses some more. "Tell me it's dead... Just tell me it's fucking dead." He's grinding his teeth and growling that he was caught in that position.
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