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Post by Henley on Jan 13, 2022 11:20:00 GMT -8
The violence stopped. Henley's heart stopped pounding. And then he looked down at his shredded right bicep. Without clothing, it was incredibly easy to see precisely where the eel's jaw had latched on. What really got him, though, was the second jaw. The pharyngeal jaw. Like Alien.
A wave of nausea rose up within him. He'd done his part. He'd suffered for the Motley's cause. And now, he just really, really wanted to see a surgeon. To everyone else, the bleeding Nymph looked queasy. In the water, it was impossible to tell that tears were mixing with the water.
"Okay. Okay. It's done." Bleeding into the water wasn't great, but with so many eels, the Hedge creatures had already had their fill. "Let's get this done. Let's get this done so I can get to a medic. Let's go. Let's go. Come on."
With that, he dropped the contract and brought himself and Gavin back to reality. Mustering his courage and covering the fact that he was in a great deal of pain with a stiff upper lip and a ton of personality, the Nymph raised his arms in celebration. Personality was amped to eleven as he took control of the situation once more with the Hedge creatures.
"Yes, my cousins! You did it! Look at you! Victorious, blessed by the power of the Water of Life!" He gestured from each to each with his good arm. "Let us go forth! Take us to the Trove Guardian, we'll do our business, and then we'll celebrate!"
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 14, 2022 21:29:15 GMT -8
The lingering pulse of electrical surges twitched throughout his bestial limbs. When the shaking slowed enough, the intoxicating swell of adrenaline, an overshadowing inspiration toward destruction, and his usual primal inclination toward violence had all mixed together with the apparent cloud of blood from his task-bonded ally to form a singular whirlwind of violence that was tethered only to the proximity of the Beast's friends. Those unfortunate creatures to have been both distracted by the Dancer and lulled by the Playmate were not spared the viciousness of the Razorhand unleashed. The red of the serpentine swarm had soon joined the swirling nebula of the waters filling the subway platform. Spring's dance had run through him igniting the desires that ran through to his core. Satisfying both the season and the Beast's own call he was returned from the alien ethereal plane Henley had taken him. When his nerves had settled he looked to Henley's wound. There wasn't anything he could directly do for it, but there was a suggestion to be made. Speech wasn't possible for him underwater and geared as he was with the ephemeral bubble of air and leaves shaping his breathing apparatus, so he pantomimed with hand gestures to look around the area and then waved an Amaranthine back and forth hoping to remind his friend of the Oath's bounty. It wouldn't take but a moment with fate bound such as it was. Even if Henley chose not to use his immediately, he would do well to have the option on hand. The rainbow flow of glamour, hope, and discarded memories still streamed by as the Ogre took his cue. So with the available time he'd bought from Henley's rush he too tapped into the feeding frenzy with a final wrathful swipe of his claw into the sparkling torrent of available energy.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 14, 2022 21:42:53 GMT -8
The mermaids cheered as Henley reappeared, wrapping a chewed eel around his neck like a prized boa and donning a long coat from one of the corpses to drape from his shoulders. Gavin's adrenaline spikes as some of the mermaids tug playfully at his oxygen tank, though they swirled away as he gave the warning of his waving hand. The flood is directed once more as the shoal leads Henley through what appeared to be an underwater train junction, with stone and tight tunnels twisting with steel beams and impossible light sources. Mitch followed along with Yuan in the ephemeral, maintaining the protections he had conjured. The crags and bends of the Trod were sometimes uncomfortably tight between the Beast's equipment and Carr having to keep his hold on the Playmate to maintain the Contract.
An eerie song coursed through the water, with the same quality as a gramophone as the stone gave way to crumbling cities and bloated ruins. The mermaids moved around thin, free flowing tendrils that were almost invisible to the naked eye, with the occasional fish seizing as it touched the surface like a pigeon on a live wire. The size of the tentacles increased, drifting in the current with the same twitch and lilting cadence of the music. They passed a series of massive atriums echoing the fantastical nature of a a Renaissance gazebo, before the stream of glamour swirled through the water, causing an explosion of life that lit up the environment before slowly diffusing into the water as the environment ate away at its power. The mermaids dispersed. A great figure loomed. I can see you shining.
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Post by Henley on Jan 15, 2022 10:19:00 GMT -8
Taking Gavin's cue, on the way, he sought the Goblin Fruit that his friend had suggested. The Oath would do its part or it would not, but if it did, a balm to cure his wounds would be most welcome.
Then, they arrived.
David must have felt like this when first he glanced upward and saw Goliath's knee for the first time: a mighty feeling of being exactly sure how small you were in the face of a Leviathan. This was the Guardian, and thus it was this that Henley would have to negotiate with.
Breathe.
This was fine. Plenty of hobs were able to kill him. The agony in his arm was enough to show him that they didn't have to be huge to do it. Gills filled with water and he prepared to address the giant.
"A song of storms and bending a river of pure emotion -- how could I not?"
He gestured to the mermaids who had fled. They had bathed in the joy that was his wake.
"I am told that a glass Dancer once came and sold his heart to go home. The humbled Dancer yearns for its return. I come to broker a trade, if a trade is something you are willing to consider."
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Post by Mitchell Carr on Jan 16, 2022 19:35:23 GMT -8
Mitch's myriad of eyes slowly wandered up the goliath that emerged from the Hedge's shadows, considering how this trip would have gone if he had tackled it by himself; expecting Henley to do it alone didn't sit right. Beads started popping in rapid succession as the Sovereign started to pull at the imagined space of the Thorns, embodying the aether stage as precise position and layers of reality peeled him and Yuan's mutual infatuation into something workable as his kiss wove an armour set that was a more sophisticated version of Gavin's diving gear. He dropped the Beast back into reality once the other was safe and guaranteed not to drown. The Thorns shook as he continued to push his luck, succumbing to the wanton carelessness that both his Crown and Mantle encouraged. Rather than working with the environment, the Fairest danced through his fractured reality to force his mad will onto the chaos. Fractal wings snapped water out of the way as he moved without its resistance to stop next to Henley, exhaling gold as oxygen ceased to have any true meaning to him.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 16, 2022 19:48:43 GMT -8
The jellyfish-squid like giant lazily flowed around the atrium of the motley, continuing to fill the cavern with the encompassing music. Diving under, the tips her fingers curled over the edges to fit just between the columns, as the featureless face flickered and pulsed with chromatophores. The humming continued on another frequency as the Hobgoblin's flashing mien delivered psychic intent. She was amused with the amount of noise they were causing, with a welcoming clarity to her domain. Curious, then, what they were wishing to barter for trinkets of the Keeper's treasured. The warm attention had the mermaids peering from their hiding places, content to return to swimming and flipping through the slipstream stream of glamour that threaded through Henley's flood. It reduced the tension, some, as bars of light reached their shaded corner.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 16, 2022 22:13:45 GMT -8
Gavin positioned himself closely to his pack of companions preparing to react as needed to keep them safe, treading water languidly.
Cautiously he tried to scan the wider area to maybe catch glimpses of something other than the massive creature's tentacles throughout the nearby structures, but found he couldn't look away from the immense form. He found he was always following a tentacle back to the base on its bulky body whenever he wasn't already looking there. His gaze not allowing him to do anything else, he attempted a careful analysis of this Guardian from the depths of the Thorns, hoping to size up how to best approach achieving their goals with it.
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Post by Henley on Jan 16, 2022 23:23:12 GMT -8
More emotion, swings of unbridled Desire mixing with inspiration to destroy mixed with pride and forwardness, all in the context of a Glamour dunking of a lifetime?
Nate Henley had never had a high like this. Fear was the mindkiller. This was his realm just as much as it was theirs, and the Nymph was rapidly growing to become King of the thing. The little mercreatures loved him. So would this one. He was an inspiration to all those who would think themselves Hobgoblin brokers. Mitchell Carr's sheer power only served to support the sheer fucking hubris that coming here was.
Henley grinned at Mitchell Carr, who had appeared next to him, before returning his attention to the creature.
"Spring's Blessings be upon you, Guardian."
Trinkets, plural? He cocked his head to the side, his tail whipping about beneath him as he stirred the glamour.
"We've lots of fun things to trade. Precious memories, perhaps -- or this Glamour storm, stolen fresh from the falls above with the power of Spring itself." He leaned in a little. "Or... for the right price? The truth of a Keeper's Bane. You know. The one that has taken refuge within the Sunset Canyon Market..."
He gestured to the group.
"We come prepared to trade value for value. I would do no less for a cousin. Do you have other items of value to put on the table? Perhaps we can discuss an all-inclusive arrangement."
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 17, 2022 11:52:01 GMT -8
Clad in his new armour, Yuan shimmered back into existence and floated down to where the rest of the motley was standing.
So far, the Playmate had dragged behind, not doing anything particularly noteworthy to assist in the endeavour. Henley, on the other side, had kept his mouth running for a good while now. Instinct growled in his gut to prove his own worth. He wasn't going to let the Ogre sow off and have all the fun.
"We thank you for welcoming us into your domain and hearing us out. My associate is a fair man and will not try to swindle you out of a good deal. Our metaphorical pockets are full and ripe for spending."
Animal drive bade him to keep up, lest the pack leaved him behind. Or worse, traded him away.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 19, 2022 10:38:22 GMT -8
Gavin was looking at a Goblin powerful with the Wyrd, settling in as a sizeable feature of this corner of the Hedge where it was comfortable to nest just outside Keeper domain. Giant sea hags weren't new to folklore, though this one had some Chthonian vibes with her encompassing music and the kaleidoscopic void. The stingers were everywhere, giving the Razorhand the impression that if he were to have to carve his way through, it wouldn't be comfortable for him. He also noted that the skin of the creature's face had a myriad of slits that subtly vented and pulsed, almost like Nate's gills, but he realized they might actually be eyes. Definitely a psionic who fed off of knowledge in the dark. The Trove Guardian greeted the others in turn, through a feeling rather than spoken conversation as patterns rippled across her face. Carr and Hua were assessed and sized up with an alien intent they couldn't quite muddle through to reach understanding, but Henley and Gavin knew they were always more welcome among Hobs than their peers. Their motley Oath was tugged on, sending the buzz of one an other's thoughts and emotions along the vine in a fit of low static. It was brief and crammed to award anything useful at a glance, but they could sense the Trove Guardian now recognized them as a unit. She had many treasures collected through time, and there was a sense of greedy pride; the mermaids regarded as an extension of the hive, and their deaths as inevitable as their brief, soulless lives. Icons were available for all of them, apparently—they had yet to exist long enough to draw attention on the Market. Legendary Lost drew ire from eager Huntsmen and jealous Keepers, or jilted Goblins and Changelings seeking leverage.
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Post by Henley on Jan 20, 2022 23:20:51 GMT -8
Henley swirled his tail beneath himself as he considered what he'd just been psychically told. Icons. For all of them, because they weren't powerful enough to warrant attention. It was like a dream come true, as if Spring had blessed them and Fate had rewarded them for daring to try.
The shrewd Ogre put two and two together, price-wise, based on his experience with Hob negotiations. Like for like. The memory was important because of what it possessed, and the creature would want compensation accordingly. A Bane for a Bane. That ought to cover Carr, who had an Icon of significant value. The fact that he'd be able to bring the Bane home with him would be a big boon for the children of Zephyr. He glanced at Yuan and flashed a smile. Good for him, if one day he wanted to plot its downfall as badly as Henley wanted to take the Lantern out of the Game...
"A Bane for a Bane. To both of you, as a broker, I suggest that a fair trade would be Mr. Carr's memory of learning the Bane of the Last Unicorn, who haunts Sunset Canyon, in exchange for the Icon that he left behind that contains the Bane of his Keeper."
And now for the remainder.
"For the rest of us, weak in the Wyrd and lesser aides to this grander arrangement, I propose that the rampant Glamour I bring with me is sufficient. It pours now into your realm, reclaimed by Spring's blessings and offered to you and yours as payment. Your servants will grow grander with the power of what I have offered with my rains, and your power to claim more of the treasures you guard will become ever larger." He held up a finger and grinned broadly.
"And... if you wish, I will sweeten the deal. I will tell our Knight of Borders of a wonderous being with memories aplenty to trade. Think of all you could learn, the treasure trade waiting to happen."
He wiggled his tail and gestured to the creature.
"Why should Machina have it all?"
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 23, 2022 13:23:43 GMT -8
The Beast was silenced by his underwater breathing apparatus, but he was far from passive. The mad rush of Mitch's movements nearby kept his thoughts pinned in this living moment. Henley's rousing dealing was magnificent as he stared down the leviathan. Yuan had kept the broken man from falling to pieces in a clinch moment. No one had fallen off the path, even in the depths of the Thorns. In the face of haunting forever dances, the siren call of mermaids, vicious tunneling crabs, lightning storms, electric eels, a veritable tide of whimsy, and several changes in scenery, everyone was still alive and relatively well at their collective destination. This was everything being a Hedge Guide was meant to be for him.
The journey wasn't over yet though, and the titanic creature had yet to respond to Nate's offer. With nothing left to immediately do, the Razorhand was left only to quietly contemplate responses to potential dangerous scenarios coming from the immediate surroundings or ominously nearby Arcadia. With this journey's history, it could almost literally be anything.
Somehow he had a smug feeling of certainty despite their precarious positioning. Meditation really seemed to be paying off for him.
The Hedge's promise to flow as Gavin willed it clung to him like a second Mantle, gently rippling the waters nearby waiting to answer his call. It was a promise he would call on to make him the hero yet again if need be. He just didn't know how or if it would happen. So he waited like a coiled snake ready to react to whatever came next.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 23, 2022 22:37:15 GMT -8
A low, sonic rumble sounded through the reef. Maybe the Guardian was calling someone?
Some amusement bubbles through their minds, as she thanks Henley for the gift he has brought, but is unsure how he plans on continuing to flood the Trod, unless he seeks to stay. Feelings of a plunging darkness, vapid narcissism, wanton waste, and the draining of joy took a moment to parse, as they eventually recognized that these were aspects of the Gentry turning Its attention on them. The Guardian was considering whether the Primordial Dark would grow jealous if the shoal grew fat on the valueless now having value.
The mention of a Knight causes some pause, as she muses on whether the Spear would entertain an attempt to breach her treasury. Crusades were common among the Spears, and many of the Lost didn't understand the concept of Finders Keepers.
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Post by Mitchell Carr on Jan 23, 2022 22:58:32 GMT -8
Huh, the Hobs really didn't have a lot of imagination, did they? The Fairest's head cocked as the Trove Guardian started punching holes in the value of Henley's initial pitch, a mournful chorus splitting from a cacophony. "It isn't a gift. Your mermaids already drank from it and brought us here in hopes for more. If you're looking to expand, you're going to subjugated either way unless you relocate. Your complaints are moot if you're seeking for him to offer more of himself. He's right that a few Icons of weaker Lost don't mean much in the grander scale. So, unless you're looking on trading up with our Huntsmen—
which Metatron will kill your for knowing Its Bane
—we can stop pretending that we need to offer you security for the glamour river."
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 24, 2022 17:33:51 GMT -8
His pupils contracted to slits that stared down the alien entity. He had braved the Thorns unscathed. He had brought Mitch back to consciousness. He had subjugated the reef's eels. He felt untouchable. The Guardian had tried to take advantage of them. They have tried to leverage their position as host to get the better of them. Such blatant disregard to the Laws of Hospitality caused Yuan to gawk at the giant Hob. The indignity.
"We came to you in good faith and you took advantage of us. It is like the Herald said: you owe us already. Whether you care for their lives or not, the mermaids are yours and as such their debt is yours to shoulder."
Beat, pause for effect. "He's not joking, you know? I'm trying to help you out here." The Playmate had but a faint idea of what Mitch was talking about, but decided to play along.
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