Sexy Dreams
4/9/2007
02:31 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (53% full).
It is currently 14:30 Pacific Time on Mon Apr 9 2007.
Currently in Saint Claire, it is raining lightly. The temperature is 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 13 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.97 and rising, and the relative humidity is 77 percent. The dewpoint is 42 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius.)
Nivek's Nightmare Nexus (Open All Nite)(#2492RFJ)
A place where the unknown past and the emergent future meet in a vibrating soundless hum.
Contents:
Basil
Cole
Nivek
Obvious exits:
GM Nexus
Having gone to sleep tonight in the normal way, you are a little surprised to awake and find yourself standing in a city street. It isn't a street you know, neither does the general atmosphere seem quite what you're used to. The cars parked at the side of the road are old and rusty, and what's more, they're not modern; they have the tell-tale bodywork and aerodynamics of the 1950s or 60s. Corvettes, Thunderbirds, even the odd Edsel. The rubbish which drifts in the gutter is old newspapers and apple cores, but no cans of soda, no plastic garbage. You have the distinct impression that you're not in your own space and time. And the same doubtless goes for the other Garou who y9ou find yourself standing near.
Cole opens his eyes, which widen comically when he finds himself near familiar faces in a completely unfamiliar time. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto," comes the Galliard's first comment. He tries to place himself by glancing around, taking stock of his companions and any blatant threats.
Yi 'wakes' as well, to the city world... definitely not as familiar to her. With the addition that other Garou are here, she stares in confusion at the setting, and quickly moves her hands to pat herself down, taking stock. "You could say that again," she utters, first inclination to say so in her native tongue.
Basil seems disoriented to say the least when he first takes stock of the situation, the Garou stumbling momentarily. Glancing at the other two Garou, Basil then taps his foot on the ground, as if making sure it was solid. "I didn't know the woods outside the farmhouse had funny mushrooms."
Cole snorts. "Last I'm not alone," he mutters. "Is this a dream, or are you guys actually real? Or would you even tell me if you weren't." The Fianna shrugs to himself, then continues to look around. "This is really fucking creepy. Like Coney Island. Only worse."
As Cole speaks, the "fucking creepiness" of the scene is increased. Sirens start to sound. Not cop-car or ambulance sirens; these sirens appear to be affixed to nearby buildings. They're loud, and jarring, and unpleasant.
"Should I punch you then?" Yi suggests helpfully, if jokingly, her tone still a little nervous. The sudden claxon calls wipe away the laughs and make the no-moon move for the nearest shadowy shelter. "Come on!"
Basil looks up when the sirens blare, running a hand through his hair and leaving it there to try and shield himself from the sound. "Man, I swear." He starts, glancing up at the sky then at Yi. He nods and follows her at a brisk jog, suggesting. "Air raid?"
The sirens continue, rising and falling in pitch. The Garou may note that the city street is deserted, save for them.
Yi looks busy, looking around for the nearest door to a relatively safe looking building. "The bigger question I have is who is in control here," she notes back to her tribemate. She tries the nearest handles.
The door opens easily, and Yi and Basil slip inside quickly. The door swings shut behind them, at which point the Bone Gnawers realise that Cole is still outside.
"You're assuming it's someone's dream, or that we're not in something elses dream. Or that we haven't been transported into the Reflection, or... Uh." Basil glances back at the cars, and guesses. "Cuba?" Basil takes stock of the building as soon as he's inside, far more concerned with what's inside rather than who's outside.
Yi slips into the building interior, only to look back at the others. "If this is the Umbra, then someone's playing tricks. Where's Cole?" she asks the ahroun, eyes narrowing in suspicion towards the door. Her hand moves to open it again, if she can.
The door remains firmly sealed to Yi's twisting. The Bone Gnawers can see in the dimness a flight of stairs behind the door, leading down.
Basil looks back towards the door when he's sure nothing inside is going to bite him in the ass. "I guess that he's out there. Maybe something grabbed him, or... Maybe, I dunno. Maybe if it's a dream, he woke up." Basil frowns when the door remains shut then turns to face the interior of the house. "This is startin' to remind me of some video games."
Shut tight. Of course. Yi frowns at the door after a few more tries, and then turns to Basil. "Well, unless this is your dream and I am in it, or my dream and you are in it, or something else's dream and we are in it... we should be careful not to get caught." She looks to the stairs, peering down, and carefully takes the first step.
The step is concrete, cold, and solid underfoot.
"I doubt it's my dream. Usually they're either a lot more bloody, a lot more crazy, or a whole lot sexier." Basil scratches the side of his head, then stacks up behind Yi, ready and willing if not eager to follow her down the stairs.
"I... do not think I want to know too terribly about those options," Yi comments with a glance back at the ahroun. So they proceed, down to the dungeon level. Yi checks if her dedicated throwing knives are on her person.
Dungeon level? Perhaps not. The concrete stairs lead down what seems a great way until they end at a metal door. From behind the door a faint hubbub can be heard, as it might be a large number of people speaking quietly. Or maybe it's just the door muting their sound.
"Don't worry, my sexy dreams usually involve men. Way prettier men." Basil assures Yi in a quiet, sardonic but amused voice. The Ahroun keeps his eyes mostly on the path ahead, though he glances over his shoulder regularly to make sure nothing is following them.
Yi faces forward, and a good thing as there's inevitably a rise of an urge to laugh, making it all the way to her expression before she squashes it down into submission. "I don't suppose you could share one of them, as I do like some pretty men," the ragabash comments back. Her voice quiets, though, as they come to the door. Touching a finger to her lips, she listens at first.
Nothing follows the Bone Gnawers down as they reach the bottom. Yi bends an ear to the door, which is cold steel, but it's also thick enough that though she's sure there are people behind it, she can't make out any words or distinct voices.
"Maybe when you aren't spying." Basil murmurs and sits on the edge of a step behind her. "So long as you tell me one of your's." Basil reaches into his pants pocket and digs around for a lollipop. "Can't imagine you even taking a roll in the hay though, even in your dreams. Where the hell are my cigarettes?"
In his pocket Basil finds a lollipop. He also finds a small plastic square, a freebie calendar given away by bars. He knows well enough that this serves very well for 'loiding locks.
"Then would it surprise you to know I was pregnant once?" Yi counters, although her voice is kept quiet. Canting her head, she steps back from the door to try shifting to her warform.
Basil gives Yi a deadpan look. "It would surprise me to know you did it for fun instead of duty, or both. You never talk about Kin or anything else." Basil pulls out the card along with his sucker, then knocks Yi lightly on the back of the head with it. "We don't know theres a threat behind the door, quit with snap crackle pop."
Yi puts a hand to her head at the pop touch, giving the ahroun an Eye. "A ragabash has her secrets," she states with a look back to the door. "And charging in was not the idea. Spying, was." The fostern continues with her shifting, bulking up until she can utilize the keener senses available to the lupine forms.
"I guess I'm too used to the non-ragabash way. Smash grab and burn." Basil takes the wrapper off his sucker and puts it in his pocket while placing the treat in his mouth. "I'd ask you to tell me more, but I doubt you're gonna right now. Didn't think many of us were into the whole reproduction things, Gnawers I mean."
In her keener eared form, Yi can still not quite hear the individual words behind the door, but she gets the impression that the people speaking are nervous, worried, on edge. It comes through in their tone.
Runner twitches her ears with intense interest, and then reverts back to her homid form. "Sounds like people. Worried people. Care to do the honors of knocking?"
"Shift down first." Basil tells her, waiting for her to do so before moving past. The Gnawer lifts his hand to knock then remembers the thing in his hand, and instead uses the hard plastic on the door to try and jimmy it open quietly. He keeps his free hand on the knob, not wanting it to fly open immediately and unnaturally should he succeed.
"Or, smash and grab honors," Yi murmurs with a look to what Basil does. She slowly slips her fingers up her sleeve, feeling the throwing knives kept strapped to her wrist. "I still think it would be more polite to knock."
"Even better to pretend you have a key and belong in the first place." Basil murmurs back, rising up to his full posture once he wins his bout against the lock. He opens the door fluidly and steps down, keeping a neutral face and easy posture, the Ahroun immediately glances around the room he enters.
As the door opens, Basil and Yi see a dank subterranean cellar, filled with rows of rough wooden benches upon which sit, crammed close together, people. When the door swings open, the low murmur of voices is stilled, and one or two people gasp in surprise.
Yi shrugs lightly, this time being the follower as she comes in behind the ahroun. Her eyes blink a few times to readjust to the dimness. It takes longer to realize what they've stumbled into. Or who. "Huh."
Basil lifts his hand up palm first in the international symbol of 'do no harm', blinking rapidly to adjust his eye sight. "I guess it is an air raid... " Basil trails off.
From the back of the crowd come pushing several men clad in black leather uniforms, toting sub machine guns which are raised at the two garou. "Who are you?" one demands. "Let's see your passes."
Yi doesn't make any sort of real visible move, save to shift her weight back. "Passes," she mutters with a scanning headcount of the armed men. "We must have forgotten them upstairs."
Basil glances all around then looks looks at his clothing. "Can't say I've got one on me right now. I was kind of in a hurry to get down here after the sirens went off. I didn't want to be caught out there, you know?"
The uniformed men look between one another uncertainly. "You'd better come with us to the Section Leader," one says, and jerks with his gun to indicate them to follow.
Yi nods agreeably enough, though she peers at the people a little longer before moving.
Basil seems more concerned with his surroundings and the people in front of him with machine guns than the others. He follows along side by side with Yi all the same.
The uniforms lead Basil and Yi to a small office, starly furnished, containing a desk behind which sits a man in a similar uniform, but bareheaded, with rimless glasses. Opposite him at the desk, slumped and barely conscious, is the familiar form of Cole. The man looks up as the Gnawers enter. "More of them?" -- "Yes, sir," replies the uniformed man.
Cole is just now waking up, his eyes unfocused as the effects of whatever took him down are wearing off. "Huzzhat? Wher'em I?" His voice is fuzzy and his tongue doesn't want to seem to cooperate, but he's alive and well enough. Most likely.
Yi follows along quietly, memorizing the path and its characteristics as they're lead on. Her recognition of Cole goes unverbalized, but she peers at the Section Leader intently. "Are all of these guards really necessary?" she asks a bit disdainfully.
Basil glances upwards and sighs out. "I guess it's more the fault of the enemy rather than them, Yi." Basil looks at Cole then at the guards, gesturing in a vague circle. "I'm sorry we've forgotten our papers. Didn't want to stay outside with all the sirens going off."
"Of course they are," snaps Glasses. "We must display constant vigilance in these dark times. Spies of the Enemy are everywhere. Speaking of which," he goes on, "who the hell are you? Is this your allocated bunker? Do you all /just happen/ to have forgotten your passes? You know the penalty for not carrying them at all times."
"Passes?" This question comes from the Fianna, who's starting to look more alert. His eyes move over Yi and Basil in the process of scanning the room. If he recognizes them, it's not readily apparent. His eyes are swimming about in the way of someone close to the edge of sleep or fall-on-your-face drunkenness.
Yi echoes, "Of course. But it may be best for all our sakes to have the situation and its seriousness repeated so all may hear, yes?" Skirting the issue for now, she makes an appeal to the leader's uptight nature.
"If I was a spy, I'd have brought false papers. Bringing none at all is kind of suspicious." Basil offers, gesturing towards the ceiling. "This isn't our assigned bunker, but we weren't near our's." Basil glances over and Yi and smiles. "We were just out walkin' together and I can't say either of us were thinking of passes." He turns back to the captain and lowers his head. "We're both sorry, sir."
"Passes." The man glares at Cole. Then a thought seems to strike him. "Do you three /know/ each other?" he asks in a slow, suspicious drawl. "Seems damn funny you all turning up at once. You /sure/ you aren't spies for the enemy?" He eyes Basil. "Then again, if you were, you'd have been better briefed and wouldn't stand out like sore thumbs..."
"Not to mention I probably wouldn't have a splitting headache." Cole reaches up a hand to rub at his face, still blinking as his body struggles to fight off the gas.
Basil leans over and looks at Cole. "I think I've seen him around town a few times. I know her a lot better though." Basil smiles and looks at Yi again, shrugging just a little bit. "We've known each other for a while now. I guess you could say we're close when she isn't yelling at me."
"That is a pointed question, sir," Yi replies to the leader. "But obviously we've done nothing but be briefly absent-minded." She eyes Basil again, but keeps her solemnity and the air of penance about her.
"The penalty, as you /should/ be aware," snaps Glasses, "is indefinite detention in a cellular camp. Do you three people actually have /names/ or have you forgotten those too?" he asks with heavy irony.
Cole remains quiet for once, furtively glancing towards Yi to carry on their charade and (hopefully) give him his cue. He attempts to play it off as if he's still too affected by the gas to answer competently.
Basil bows his head in apology again. "I'm sorry, sir. My name is Basil Jamenson." Basil rights himself then turns hi look at Yi expectantly, waiting for her to introduce herself.
It takes her a moment to answer, but Yi replies with a pseudonym. "Xiao Li." Her eyes flick towards Cole, and then back to the leader.
Glasses looks at Cole. "What about y--" As he speaks, there's a tremendous concussion, and the whole room is shaken. The uniformed men at the door cry out in fear, and the people on benches in the distance can be heard to scream. Panic reigns. The man in glasses jumps up from his chair and draws a pistol. "Maintain order!" he commands. As he does so, there's another huge concussion, and the roof of the passage outside falls in.
Cole starts to respond, even as the question's put to him. "Robert O'Toole, sir," he replies, using his own alias. Just as he's ending, the concussion causes him to jerk his head in the direction of the impact. He jumps up to his notably wobbly feet. "What in the hell?"
"I told you so." Basil mutters as he ducks a bit and puts his hands above his head. Then the Gnawer has a realization and stands up straight again, dusting himself off. "I wish we hadn't forgot our papers Li Li." He looks over at Cole, then back at the roof of the room. "Air raid."
Ducking a little under the concussive round, Yi furrows her brow. "We should find out what's causing that," she asides to Basil, using the noises and order as cover.
A third concussion, now. More roof falls in, and one of the walls of the office bulges dangerously. The man in glasses is still brandishing his pistol and babbling orders. The bulging wall creaks and gives way, revealing that it's been pushed in by a huge, green, pulsating, segmented body of something that looks like a giant maggot. The stench is vile, and the shouts of orders and panic die away in shock.
Cole is watching the walls warily, as if they might give in on him at any moment. He looks at Basil when the Gnawers gives his explanation. The look turns to one of disbelief as the source of the damage is revealed. "Where? An air raid in Hell?!" The Galliard pushes aside the haze that the gas casts over his body, forcing himself toward Crinos with a will.
"I told you what's causing-" Basil starts then pauses, jumping back with a look of disgust painting over his face. "What the fuck?! I've never gotten Lovecraft in my dreams before!" The Gnawer shouts, shifting up rather quickly into Crinos and readying himself for a fight.
Yi jumps back at the sight of the green maggot, teeth gritting as she turns to the commanding officer. "Hey! You have a backway out of here? Go, now!
The few remaining soldiers not already in panic at the explosions, or the maggot, now lose their self-control at the sight of crinos Garou. The man in glasses screams in a reedy voice, and empties his pistol -- three shots at the maggot, two at the wall, and one which just wings Cole across the ribs. He's in no state to answer Yi's question.
Howls winces as the bullet skips across his side, drawing out a cross between a grunt and a snarl. ~Kinfolk you're not,~ he tells the panicky Glasses, before turning his eyes upward, towards the Wyrm-thing. He seems waits no longer, trying to leap up and rake his nails at the thing's hide as best he can.
Kills-the-Cries looks at Yi for a brief moment as if he's thinking of throwing her at the thing, then the Ahroun follows Cole's lead and takes a running leap at the thing to try and drag his claws across whatever part of it could possibly be in reach. ~No shit, I could guess that Cole!~
Cursing out a storm, Yi ducks to a side as guns go off, shifting herself to the nearman. "Dream or not, Combat the Wyrm!" She levels a punch to K.O. one of the soldiers and take his automatic machine gun.
As the soldiers struggle to escape through the partly blocked door of the office, the maggot opens its pasty white jaws and plucks one of them up, biting him cleanly in half with one movement. Bad news for the hapless grunt, but perhaps better news for the garou, who get one golden chance to attack it while its focus is not upon them. Yi punches out another soldier, grabs his SMG, and levels it at the creature, while the two boys dive in with claws flashing. The maggot seems to almost explode at the touch of the claws and bullets, a thick black paste splashing the entire room and all its contents. When the dust settles and people can see again, the leather-clad soldiers are gone, and the maggot is exploded as thoroughly as Oscar Wilde's Mr. Bunbury. Apart from the garou, only the man in glasses remains, in a weeping heap on the floor, cradling his empty pistol in his arms like a baby. The doorway to the office is blocked by immense heaps of bricks and rubble.
Kills-the-Cries shifts down into Homid with the ooze still on him, flinging it off in all directions that he can. "I ain't been covered in this much goo since I stopped dating your Kin." Basil grumps at Cole, trying to get whatever is on him off of him. "Christ. It's always goo."
Howls-for-Glory huffs his breath in a very unsatisfied manner. ~Combat the Wyrm...for about half a second. Was that -it-?~ The Fianna, covered in the disgusting goop, nonetheless takes stock. ~I almost can't believe even humans were afraid of that.~ Falling back to Homid, Cole casts a glare Basil's way. "Spare me, Basil. I'll pretend to listen to your tales of bum-banditry later." Yi's SMG gets a surprised look.
Yi continues firing until the creature is splattered, and remains shifted, even with the gun barrel smoking. The goo is wiped as best she can with a free hand. "I don't like this dream anymore," she comments. "We need to find our way out. And I am not going through that," she says with a look up at the maggot hole.
Fine words from Yi, but the maggot hole is the only obvious way out of the tiny cramped office, the main door in being well and truly blocked by the fallen roof. Glasses continues to cradle his gun in his arms. "We have to get out... have to get out of here," he mutters to himself.
"But I like making you squirm." Basil murmurs distractedly, looking up at the maggot hole. "I wonder who's dream this is anyways, and how the hell we're going to get out if you aren't willing to go through there. But hey, I'm open to suggestions."
"No shit, Sherlock." Wiping the gore from himself, he looks up at the ceiling. "This wouldn't be the most disturbing dream I've ever had." A softer mutter of "Just close to it." follows. "What should we do about Colonel Klink?" Basil gets another glare. "Don't even think it, Basil. Thought you would have learned that lesson."
Yi looks from one to the other, and then down to Glasses. A silent pause is given, listening for any new barrages and burrowings incoming, before she bends to wipe her hand off on the half-munched soldier and grab what ID or pass might be visible. "We go through the maggot hole then. And leave him," she says coldly.
The fellow on the photo-ID badge doesn't look in the least like Yi, but since he's bisected and dead, he can't point out the lack of resemblance. A few drips of black ichor spill from the hole in the wall.
"Everyone else disappeared." Basil points out, lifting a flat palm up at Cole. "If everyone else disappeared, and he's still here, don't you think it means something?" Basil looks over at the officer, then back at the other two Garou.
Cole grunts. "It might mean something. But then again, everyone disappeared because they were either eaten or buried beneath tons of rock." He looks to Yi, then to the gore-strewn hole with doubt on his features. "But it looks like we'll have to be leaving through there at some point, sure enough."
Glasses continues to squat on the floor, clutching at his empty gun and babbling to himself. Only the occasional word is audible. "...diamonds... dragon... powder... bandersnatch..."
Yi looks from the hole back to Glasses, particularly at the babbling phrases she can catch. "What?" she asks anyway, following 'bandersnatch'. A little bit after, she shakes her head. "Ok, well. Which one of you can take him? Might as well get him out as well."
Cole looks down at the stricken soldier, then lets out a sigh. "I'll carry him. Might as well make friends with the man who had me gassed. C'mon, Klinky!" He bends down to pick up the man.
Basil looks ready to volunteer when Cole steps forward. "Guess that means Cole is in the middle, Yi's point and I'm flank." Basil glances around the room one last time then gestures towards the hole in the wall. "Ladies first."
Klinky, as Cole dubs him, doesn't resist when Cole scoops him up into a fireman's lift, though he doesn't assist Cole either; all he seems concerned about is keeping hold of his gun. From the hole in the wall drifts a faint breath of icy air, carrying an unpleasant aroma.
Yi nods reluctantly, shouldering her pilfered weapon and looking to the wyrmspawn's made hole. "This better just be a dream," she mutters as she moves through, trying to avoid the slick ichor as much as possible.
Cole follows behind Yi, shouldering Klinky. He's not overly gentle about it, either, but tries to keep the worst of the gore and any wall protrusions from him. "You can say that again."
"At least if this is my dream, I have drugs to blame." Basil murmurs, starting up the hole behind Cole with most of his body weight leant forward. "If I wake up and I'm covered in this still I'm going to be pissed."
It's impossible to avoid becoming coated in the slime that lines the tunnel. Neither is there huge amounts of space to spare, and it's to be feared that Klinky is getting an uncomfortable ride as Cole half-carries, half-drags him along. The lining of the tunnel, after an initial few feet of brick, is soft wet earth, and the garou try not to consider the possibility of other maggots up ahead. Then Yi comes to a point where the borehole divides in two, left and right.
Cole stops behind Yi, peering down the two narrow tunnels. "Well shit, there would have to be a fork," mutters the Galliard. Klinky gets resttled for a bit more comfort.
Yi constantly wipes away the slime, flicking it back against the wall sides. "Of course," she utters. "I don't suppose either of you have a coin? Or we can do rock paper scissors," she says a little jokingly. "Anyway, let's go... Left."
"I was already thinking that. Left is the devil's hand or whatever in like Rome and stuff, y'know. Salt over the left shoulder and all that." Basil follows his Tribemate left but maintains his rear position.
The left-hand path becomes worryingly narrow, and also less slimy. Soon Yi is a tight fit in the tunnel, and if any of the garou were prone to claustrophobia, they'd surely be gibbering wrecks by now. Only the faint breeze which occasionally teases Yi from ahead gives her hope that there may yet be a way out in this direction.
Cole starts to look worried by the nearness of the alls around him. Eventually, Cole has to switch the stance he's using to carry Klinky. "Any narrower, and he's getting dragged."
Yi is fortunately fairly small, and used to cramped spaces. Still, the claustrophobic feel doesn't go unnoticed, and she steps carefully, ever hopefully still towards that tiny wafting of air. Testingly, she sniffs the wind before digging around for a lighter to use.
Basil spares his fellow Garou from anymore sex jokes but doesn't look at all pleased. "I'm starting to feel like we're climbing around in the guts of a giant Wyrm thing." Basil murmurs, now climbing forward on his hands and feet.
The lighter shows little; just greasy, clayey earth all around them, and the narrowing tunnel ahead. Klinky is, indeed, soon in a position where the only way to get him through is for Cole to pull him from ahead, and Basil to push him from behind. But the air continues to move gently.
Cole kneels down as best he can in the cramped quarters, letting Klinky make a personal confrontation with the floor of the tunnel. "Basil, mind giving me a hand?" He grabs the two feet, setting himself up to pull him as if yoked up to a cart like an oxen.
Yi inevitably pauses, the tight quarters causing her to reconsider their position for the moment. "Basil - do you see anything behind us?"
Basil shakes his head in the darkness and reaches out until he can push at the officer's backside with one hand while keeping himself from falling in the slime with the other. Basil glances behind him when he hears Yi's question. "I can't really see that far, but no. If something was coming we'd feel it."
Indeed, nothing seems to be tracking them from behind. Klinky mutters again to himself, something about beehives and soap on a rope.
Yi lets the lighter flame go out for a short moment and then sighs. "Ok, let's keep moving then." If they get wedged, maybe the slime will actually help.
Cole looks down at Klinky for a moment. "You know, it occurs to me we could always just leave him here and come back for him. If we get ambushed, he's only going to be a pain in the ass."
"You're in a good pack, you're an honorable Garou and strong enough to do it by yourself if you had to. If we can't defend one human with a Fostern, a Fianna, and me, we're fucking idiots." Basil counters. "Doesn't matter if he have him or not. We get ambushed in this tunnel and we're all screwed."
The tunnel has turned upwards, now, and though it's ever narrowing, it seems to Yi's dark-accustomed eyes that there's a faint glow of light ahead. Klinky seems to come partly back to his senses at Cole's comment, meantime. "That kid behind'd never get past me," he comments. And this may very well be accurate, so narrow has the passage become.
Cole is about to make a snappy remark to Basil and has opened his mouth to do so when Klinky speaks once more. "Hello Sleeping Beauty. Mind walking on your own for a bit? This whole dragging thing is getting tiring." Then he looks back to Basil. "Honor doesn't mean 'stupid'. I'd come back for him. I just don't want to have someone hampering me if one of those maggots from hell comes along."
"Shh." Yi shushes the both of them, squinting as she spots the light. Finally. "I see light. Just make do as long as he'll go. If he doesn't get his act together... Tend not to the sickness of others," the ragabash notes. "In death." The latter is tacked on as almost an afterthought, before she keeps climbing, heading for that light.
"If he was an unconscious Garou you wouldn't even be thinking about leaving him behind." Basil counters, then snorts at Yi. "I'll carry him if no one else does when it gets to that point. Fuck that part of the Litany." The Ahroun huffs and puffs in an obviously frustrated manner behind the others, pushing the officer along when he needs help or when Basil feels he isn't moving fast enough.
Forward and upward struggles Yi through the narrowing space until she finds herself unable to progress any further without the risk of becoming irrevocably jammed tight. There's a patch of daylight some thirty feet ahead of her, but it might as well be on the moon for the Fostern, right now. The other three come to a halt behind her, wedged like peas in a pod.
Cole comes to a stop behind Yi. "I love it when you get all Litany on us," he says pleasantly enough. His expression, though, shows his displeasure at being packed tight. "Wolf?"
A few morals here and there tossed aside, Yi comes to the end. Well, almost the end. A Cantonese curse is sighed out as she looks towards the light. "At least I know that if this is a dream, Basil is still the same in it," quips the ragabash, assessing the position. "Wolf. But also, how should we get him," she indicates with a nod to Klinky, "up with us?"
"Gawd-damned right. I swear even when I'm around Ragabashes I'm the only one that questions things sometimes." Basil trails off, mumbling. "I wonder if the place is even wide enough to shift in. If it is, why not just dig a trench to make the hole bigger? We could always go back the other way."
Cole looks around. "Yeah, if he was a Garou, he'd also have helped us with the maggot. Not that we needed it, anyhow. Instead he pretty much fired wildly and dinged me across the gut." The Fianna's voice is wry. "Digging could cause this to collapse. Too risky. Back the other way?"
"You doing the questioning just makes my job easier, Basil," Yi smirks, "or it tells me that I am doing my job right. Most of the time." The ragabash looks at the hole again, then back to the others. "And go through all that slime again?" she asks Cole dubiously.
"You're right. He should have popped his monocle and said "My word, you've gone all furry! However did you do that?!" Basil turns around on his back and digs his heels into the earth, smirking a little himself. "Someday I'm going to be in a pack under Bear. I want to make sure I deserve to serve under him." The Gnawer looks up over his shoulder at Yi. "What are you, a girl? It's only a little slime." The amusement in his voice is leaking over his mock seriousness.
Cole shoots a glare at Basil. "Does serving bear mean being a dick? If so, you've got it in the bag, Basil. Look. All I'm saying is that he doesn't need to be attached to our hips. Did it look like the office was in much danger?" Yi gets a shrug. "Washes out. I hope."
"Ask the Bear on Arthur Island, if you so want. I haven't seen /her/ in some time though," Yi murmurs, making no comment towards the gender note. "The office was a trap. But if there were two branching tunnels, that would mean there was another one of those maggots digging around, right?"
"It means standing up for the weak and healing the wounds of the Mother instead of only serving Totems that seek to spill more blood. There are more ways to serve than just spilling blood, but some Garou have forgotten that." Basil glances up at Yi again. "I don't think the tunnel was dug by the maggots at all. I think the tunnel, the colonel and all this stuff could be like... Metaphors. And for the record Cole, if I wasn't your friend, you know I coulda been a way bigger dick to you and your's than I ever have been."
Cole seems to dislike the closeness when combined with confrontation, and his voice is a bit sharp. "Should I thank you for not fucking with the Fianna, then? I don't like spilling blood any more than necessary and I believe in protecting the innocent. Bittersown could tell you that, if she could talk yet. I just believe that it's idiocy to risk so much to drag someone who would probably be safer away from anything we're going to meet!"
Yi fights back a growl in her throat. "Enough, you two, stop fighting like pups and think. Basil, what metaphors are you talking about? And Cole, see if you can give me a hand after I shift." Channeling her Rage and using the frustration brought on by the situation, she concentrates to force herself to lupus form, bypassing the other shapes. Luckily the Gnawer is smaller than the average wolf as well. Her nose wrinkles at the scents that inevitably assail her.
"No food, no water, unstable room." Basil counters simply enough. "This isn't reality even, I think it's a metaphor. Maybe it's even a test from the spirits, I don't know. So I'm going with what my gut says. And no, what I was saying was, I'm a prick sometimes but I'm good to you and your's. Just ask Brock." Basil goes quiet when Yi tells him to, then simply murmurs. "The Umbra and dreams are full of metaphors. Nothing ever means what it looks like. I think this is one of them."
Cole falls silent, swallowing his protests with a small measure of good grace. "Alright, Yi-rhya. Just let me know what you want me to do."
Runner coughs and sneezes a couple times with the smell, but indicates for Cole to act as a platform. Take care of us first then, Kills-the-Cries. Human isn't going anywhere without us knowing.
Basil doesn't respond to Yi for whatever reason, the Ahroun sitting quietly in the darkness behind the human waiting for something to change.
Cole hunkers down, setting his back so as to provide an adequate springing platform. "Ready when you are."
Runner wriggles her way onto Cole's back, casting a glance at Basil for a moment before trying to make her way up some more. Just thirty feet. Paws and claws dig for the dirt walls as she tries to push and pull herself up.
In lupus form, Runner manages to wriggle up what is now, almost, in effect a rock chimney until she can definitely see light at the top.
Runner just keeps continuing to struggle her way up towards the light like a lupine gopher. Or rat, as it were.
And yes, there's light at the top. Poking her nose out, Runner determines that the tunnel exits onto the face of a steep, sheer cliff. It's a long way down from there, and she's reluctant to poke her head any further out for fear that she may not be able to get back in.
Retreating back with a whine of disappointment, the Gnawer fostern skids backwards, back down the rock tunnel. Can't go that way, she informs the other two, ears slicking back against her head. Go back. The right path.
Cole is standing up by this point. He gives a sigh and nods. "Alright. Let's take this party back where it came from, I guess."
Basil already on his back, he digs his heels a bit into the slimy earth under foot and starts to let himself slide down the slimy earth instead of crawling.
Klinky has fallen silent again as Runner changes form, though he's not turned into the gibbering wreck that he was in the ruined office earlier. "Guys," he says, in a hoarse croaking voice, "you mean, you're not leaving me in here? Even though you could all... turn into... those... animal things... and get out?"
So the group reverses direction, and this time Yi keeps herself to the lupus form. With the voice of the leader speaking up, she pricks her ears forward at the man. Her head cocks at him as if he'd spoken something she finds quite odd.
Cole shakes his head from side to side, moving to help Klinky along. "We're not leaving you here, no. We're trying to find a way out for all of us. C'mon."
"Of course not. Leaving behind the weak to save the strong is for cowards." Basil replies to the leader, continuing his downward slide into the abyss.
"Fascinating," Klinky remarks, "absolutely... fascinating. Hold up, there, kiddo." And Basil finds his downward slide abruptly checked. "Maybe there's hope for you yet. Maybe. Though first you need to open your eyes and look beyond the end of your great, stupid, wolf noses."
Runner's ears remained flattened back, particularly at Basil's comment. The stoppage of the party's movement, however, leaves her uncomfortable. She stares at Klinky more, a forepaw scraping impatiently.
Cole is stopped dead in hs tracks by Klink apparently coming more to his senses. "Hey, quick hint. Calling us stupid? Good way to piss us off quickly." Despite his glib words, the Fianna starts to look disconcerted.
When he comes to a sudden stop, Basil tenses up immediately and kicks whatever is beneath him. When he realizes it isn't going to eat him, the Gnawer looks up at the man above him. "I'm listening if you got something to say." He states impassively after a moment.
In the darkness of the tunnel, it's hard to see exactly what's happening, but Klinky doesn't seem to be there any more. Not as Klinky, anyway. He gives a harsh, barking laugh. "The little guy's got the right idea. Keep your ears open and your hands clean, guys. And that's all from me. For now." There's a scrabbling and a struggling as Runner finds herself suddenly being climbed over by something not human, while she herself is frozen, unable to resist while the thing that was Klinky clambers past her and up to the top and to daylight. All three Garou suddenly find themselves in lupus form, with an all too familiar scent of coyote in their noses. But they haven't time to ponder; there's a rumbling beneath them, as of compressed air, and then all three find themselves forced upwards by pressure they can't hope to resist, out of the tunnel like cannonballs, and into the empty air with only the huge, vertiginous drop beneath them...
...And the three garou wake in their usual sleeping quarters, each with a pounding heart and the sensation of having just dropped from a vast height, but otherwise unharmed.
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