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+---- Thread: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits (/showthread.php?tid=5880)
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{SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 07-02-2021
Last time Cam had confronted a vampire gourd, they'd done so unprepared ( {SE} {open} bitten by a vampire). Now they'd taken to carrying a sturdy walking stick wherever they went, even within the Hollowed Grounds, where they weren't exactly hiking. The preparation had served them well, and would serve them well again today, when they saw a contingent of gourds making their way through the open doors of the Temple.
[say]"Oh no you don't,"[/say] Cam muttered, starting after them. They might not be particularly religious, but they knew that the Temple was a place of worship for both the Ascended and whoever in the Grounds might still burn a candle for the Old Gods -- and that was worth defending.
Also, they wouldn't mind a little revenge on the obnoxious gourds.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 07-29-2021
Her feet pressed amongst the shadows, glorified in their presence. Familiar pathways and age-old potentials clung to the assembly of her movements, the glint of daggers on her belt, the lines of unkempt savagery coiled within, like springs and cogs. She could hear a distant mutter somewhere near the Temple, and walking closer, might thought nothing of it – her means to defense were mostly for her own wellbeing. But an arch of her brow followed recognized silhouettes, a long stick potentially striving to knock out an impending onslaught.
The gourds again. She might’ve frowned if she wasn’t so wholly indifferent; piercing gaze slipping to Cameron instead. [say]“Would you like some help?”[/say] Came on an offer; since they’d done so for her disassembled farmhouse in the past.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 07-31-2021
Cam jumped a little at the sound of Mabel's voice; they hadn't realized she was there. Then they smiled at her. [say]"Sure, why not? There's certainly enough of them for two people."[/say]
As if to punctuate the idea, Cam whacked a particularly large gourd with their stick. It didn't do much, though, until Cam tried again, this time stabbing with the end of the stick instead of making a lateral slash. The stick poked a hole in the pumpkin, and it began to bleed orange goo as it rolled away, clearly badly wounded but still moving a little.
[say]"Can you put that one out of its misery?"[/say] Cam asked, not wanting to see even these creatures suffer -- and unable to follow it themself because they now faced another wave of gourds. [say]"And hey, it's Mabel, right?"[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 07-31-2021
Her brow arched upward at their smile (hardly anyone grinned towards her; she simply didn’t inspire them, and understandably so), but nodded at the acknowledgement, the extension of further invitations. She took hold of her daggers with a lofty, imperial air, surveying Cameron’s abilities with the large stick, and the ensuing carnage that resulted.
[say]“I can,”[/say] and she marched forward, quickly and swiftly, the stabbing motion quick and swift, a delivered bow with considerable appeasement. For a moment she simply watched as it faded, diminished, no more movement from its vines, no more grumbles, no more hisses. Satisfied, she moved onto the next, one intending to maneuver behind Cameron; notching her knife into its stem efficiently. [say]“Yes. Cameron?”[/say] If they were ensuring the right names were being called. Though her head tilted vaguely, befuddled for a moment, studying and cautious just the same. [say]“Have you changed?”[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 08-01-2021
[say]"Thanks."[/say] Cam set about beating off a set of smaller gourds as Mabel went after the wounded one. They let her move in behind them; it felt pretty cool, actually, to be fighting with someone. And Mabel's grace and skill with her daggers seemed to elevate the encounter from "just whacking things with a stick" to actually fighting.
[say]"Yeah, I'm Cameron, but you can call me Cam if you want."[/say] Cam turned a little to stab at a large gourd, and a smaller one managed to hop up and bite their arm. [say]"Ow! Damn it!"[/say]
The shallow wound bled clear fluid, solid proof of the change that they spoke of next: [say]"Yeah, I Ascended not long ago."[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 08-01-2021
Mabel didn’t proclaim her earnestness, her amusements, in the savagery and unwinding of the gourds. As her dagger hit and plunged and rallied, the distinction of her barbarity might have said it all. Dangerous. Lethal. Deadly. That’s what she wanted to be, and for the world to see it in its entirety – unleashed and unwound. Even if they were just stupid pumpkins.
She could pretend, for a moment, that it was an enemy’s blood, rather than pulp.
Her eyes lifted back up to them, head tilting vaguely as a predator might do as revelations took a turn. A bite. A howl. And then wounds that didn’t contort in ichor, nothing red, nothing crimson, but fluid.
Her smile might have indicated she was immensely pleased. A rarity. [say]“Congratulations.”[/say] No inquiries asked over what inspired the alteration; just content that the world had gained another Brightened soul, and not lost it to the Old Gods and their scales of indifference. [say]“Did you still feel pain from the bite?”[/say] Because that was odd – but maybe it had been an affect, a nuance, from times before. Habits difficult to break, even in a life anew.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 08-01-2021
At some point Cam slowed in their own gourd-whacking to watch Mabel, deeply impressed by her skill and speed with her daggers. She fought like someone born to it -- like someone fighting for their life -- instead of like, well, someone who'd never even played hockey trying to hit things with a stick and not always even managing to connect. Should Cam compliment her on it? Or was that weird?
Fortunately, she provided another avenue of conversation. Cam's instinct was to push away the congratulations, to say something about how it had been their only good option, but that put down both them and Mabel and probably their now-shared goddess as well. So instead Cam just said, [say]"Thanks."[/say]
They glanced at their arm, rubbing the wound as if trying to irritate it, to get it to hurt. [say]"No, it didn't. Weird. I just ... expected it to."[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 08-01-2021
Oh, had she of known, beyond the gaping, Mabel would have easily taken compliments. A buoy, a rally, to her self-esteem and confidence, instead of her strung and sullen silence. Instead, perhaps, their gaze said it all, and she shrugged her shoulders, moving with an eldritch grace to the next chosen victim – one-by-one, knocking off the vined gits who’d tried to encircle Cameron.
The youth understood about a lack of options as well – seeing as how it had been the only way she and her sister had survived. And now she was the only one in that stretch too.
Instead, her piercing eyes segmented straight back to their wound, while she picked up a pumpkin and assailed it through an eye. [say]“I think that’s the hardest sense to let go.”[/say] Because all their lives they’d held the expectation of pain. [say]“Sometimes you still wait for it.”[/say] Her head tilted, pondering if there was anything else she could offer or give. [say]“But that's what makes us better, isn’t it? We can keep going while the rest of them fail.”[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 08-05-2021
Watching Mabel put the gourds to shame, Cam raised their stick again and hit a few stragglers -- they didn't want it to look like they had stood around and done nothing while Mabel was so effective, even if she hadn't left much for them to do.
[say]"Hmm, maybe. Well, I don't miss it, anyway,"[/say] Cam said, referring to pain. [say]"I do kind of miss being able to taste things ... not smell, though, and they say like 80 percent of taste was smell anyway. But I don't know if I'd say we're 'better' than anyone else. Just ... different."[/say]
Mabel's words struck Cam as kind of ... supervillain-y, to be honest. But then they supposed that the term "Ascended" in itself implied some kind of superiority. Still, they wouldn't want to see other people put down just because they hadn't chosen to transmute their entire bodies and completely change their sensory and physical makeup.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 08-05-2021
Mabel would never hide her disdain for Old God followers, and her dedication and constancy to the Voice. No use in pretending to be anything less than what she was; not for her parents who’d bowed their heads to archaic heralds, to be ignored until they died of starvation and disease, to take her siblings away just the same – too ignorant, too stupid, too devoted to haughty deities who couldn’t be bothered. It was why she’d become efficient with her weapons. It was why she sought revenge for her sister, for any fallen Ascended beacons.
If that bothered Cameron, the youth remained completely indifferent.
Another slash into a set of gourds, one after the other, still didn’t quite sate her thirst for something, but she still tilted her head to listen all the same. [say]“There are a lot of things you won’t miss, after a while.”[/say] She paused, resisting the urge to snarl for whatever reason. [say]“You’ll see,” [/say]she shrugged; because they were better. It was a fact.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 08-07-2021
Cam remained oblivious to Mabel's disagreement, her anger, her contempt for the Old Gods' followers -- or, rather, they chose not to see these things, chose to continue the conversation as just a light banter about changed bodies. [say]"I hope so. I was never much for hanging out in the sun, so that's not such a problem -- it got really hot at home, so I'm pretty used to staying indoors during the day. Overall, I'm really glad I Ascended."[/say]
Their mental health had already stabilized a bit just since they'd made the change. Not having to eat helped with that, too -- it was so easy to be miserable when you were hungry or anxious about food all the time. Of course, since they couldn't taste anymore, they couldn't enjoy the few foods they actually liked, but they considered that a small tradeoff for not having to shovel unwanted matter into their face multiple times a day to survive.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 08-08-2021
It was very easy for Mabel to slip into any dark thoughts; they occupied a massive amount of her time. If she wasn’t strolling around her house, fixing and repairing things here and there, she was thinking about vengeance and vehemence. If she wasn’t partaking in moonlight strolls, in the eerie, whimsical eaves, then she was consumed by training in her armaments, sliding the hints of steel until they were no longer just inklings and insinuations.
She didn’t know Cameron well, or where they’d come from, or anything else except they were willing, able, and helpful. Some days that would’ve been enough for her, and she’d wrinkle her nose and carry on, alone and aloof. [say]“Where is home?”[/say] She asked nonchalantly, driving her dagger into proportions of a gourd so that it littered around her, trails and tails of vines becoming an orange bloodbath.
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Cameron - 08-10-2021
[say]"Georgia,"[/say] Cam answered, smiling with the knowledge that the word probably meant nothing to Mabel. How did you explain your home to someone who had never been there and never would visit, who had no context for its entire world? [say]"It's near the tropics, so it's pretty hot and humid. Kind of like Torchline here, but less beachy. Not that we don't have beaches, but most of the state isn't beachy. That's more Florida's thing."[/say]
Mabel might not have much to say, but that was fine; Cam could talk enough for both of them. At least, until they realized she wasn't responding much and started to think they were annoying here, which happened right ... about ... now.
[say]"Sorry,"[/say] they added with an awkward little laugh. [say]"I know I talk a lot."[/say]
RE: {SE} {open} take that, you little shits - Mabel - 08-13-2021
Cameron was correct. Mabel blinked slowly, lodging the name in her brain, but nothing came of it – naught known or familiar, not even in some books she might’ve recently ripped apart in the Atheneum. So while slashing at another pumpkin, and then kicking it for good measure, merely to watch it scuttle and roll along the ground, she continued to listen. Similar to Torchline, but with less beaches – the heat they couldn’t feel any longer might not have been a bad thing, and her fear of water meant that perhaps this place sounded ideal, once upon a time.
Her eyes fell back to the ground as they apologized, and she wrinkled her nose a bit, wondering if she’d prompted the regrets and rancor without meaning so. [say]“It’s okay.”[/say] She paused, considering, remembering hours she’d spent watching Samuel’s family mementos curl and dissolve in flames. [say]“I don’t talk a lot.”[/say] An obvious statement, but she shrugged her shoulders. Perhaps Cameron's words filled the void, and now that she had them on her tongue, she didn't know what to do with them. [say]“I’ve always lived in the Grounds.”[/say] And clearly, there wasn’t much to add about that.