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+---- Thread: cut our teeth and make our bones right here (/showthread.php?tid=7764)
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
[say]"What do you m-- well fuck,"[/say] Ronin hisses as he realises his own error in judgement, even before Remi helpfully tells him exactly what he needs to be doing to stop them both dying right away. [say]"And the shackles? What about th-- gowithwhat,"[/say] he blurts, just as a wendigo comes charging at him. If there were CCTV cameras (there are, but the energy in the air from the nuckelavee is burning them out as we speak) this would be hilarious to watch later.
It's less hilarious now, granted.
Still, having worked with Remi long enough to trust the process in these life or death situations - of which there have been an increasing number as of late - Ronin simultaneously braces for impact and goes limp when the wendigo snatches him up. Grunting out a note of discomfort, it's true that he doesn't fucking expect to be damsel-in-distressing it around in Remi's arms, but he sure as hell makes the most of it.
The darkness and the cold make the going tough enough that, at first, it probably does seem as though Ronin is just taking the opportunity to grope his partner. Eventually, though, he does unfasten the leash. [say]"Done - go,"[/say] he tells him.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
It's strange how holding Ronin's hand had once felt like the height of tension, but scooping the other man into his arms felt fairly commonplace. Maybe it was because of the situation at hand. Or because Remi didn't care to live long enough to think about any of this properly. Regardless.
Holding Ronin tightly against him that he might continue to weave a chaotic enough path that the nuckelavee couldn't follow easily, Remi tilts his head as much as he's able to make it easier for Ronin to untether him. Once the hunter gives the all-clear, the wendigo stumbles to a stop and unceremoniously releases his partner, already in the process of shifting.
Turning, the shackles around his wrists and ankles still holding strong (Hunkerstinker saw to the mechanics of this himself), the wendigo ceases darting about like a prey animal and instead faces the flayed-rider head-on. Parting his skeletal jaws, Remi roars a sound he hopes the nuckelavee is jealous of, before lumbering in its direction.
[say]what happens when it opens its mouth[/say] The wendigo asks, stalking vaguely to the right.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
The unceremonious release is luckily something that Ronin sees coming, because it's with a tactical roll that he hits the ground, absorbing most of the impact to allow him to spring back to his feet. The bruises on his shoulderblades will hurt later, but for right now, he barely feels a thing. And as Remi's jaws part to roar his challenge at the flayed rider, Ronin is kind of thankful that his hearing is fucked.
It probably explains why he automatically responds out loud, too, despite the other end of the conversation happening in his head. [say]"It's a creature of pestilence,"[/say] he says as he gathers his chain back up, trying to find a good opening if and when the time comes. [say]"They say its breath can drop a herd of cattle and waste crops - probably what happened to some of those hunters we saw."[/say] The convulsing ones, the ones foaming at the mouth.
[say]"It'd kill me where I stood - don't want to know what it would do to you."[/say] Aw, are we sounding worried, Ronin?
No time for that - with another chittering wheeze, the nuckelavee takes Remi's challenge and runs with it, charging at the wendigo head on.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
Though Remi doesn't respond with words, there is certainly a feeling of revulsion that Ronin will feel shiver through his thoughts. Hearing that it could kill his partner from a distance did put an interesting tactical spin on things, and given how poorly (according to some) Remi's last tactical decision had gone, the wendigo was at a bit of a loss as to how he should proceed.
Only, he wasn't really. He need to keep the thing's jaws closed, simple as that.
Not needing to breathe the way cattle and such needed to, the wendigo fills its lungs with oxygen as a precautionary measure before lumbering forward. Remi was tall, but the nucklevee was taller. The best he could hope for was being able to use its size against it. So, lowering his shoulder and putting on a burst of speed, Remi aimed to collide with part of the horse's shoulder or lower leg and knock the thing down.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
Did you just call me cattle, is what Ronin might have said if Remi's thoughts had been a little thoughtier in the moment, but luckily, they're able to keep to the moment at hand. And it really is like something from a nightmare; in the ghoulish, ruddy light and with sirens still groaning in the distance, the hunter and wendigo are alone now but for the nuckelavee and the bodies.
The stink of wet iron hangs heavily in the air, and Ronin tries not to remind himself that it's blood he can smell as he surveys the situation. Next to useless only because why the fuck would he get between a wendigo and a nuckelavee, the hunter opts to leverage their surroundings, getting himself to higher ground by hitching himself atop a dumpster, of all things.
He straightens in time to see his partner attempt to rugby tackle a fucking horse, and Ronin isn't sure what's more impressive to him; that Remi has tried it in the first place, or that it's worked.
Unbalanced and top heavy, the flayed creature goes down with a furious keening noise-- but it isn't the only thing that can take advantage of a situation. And its arms are long and its hands are colossal, and it brings both hammering down onto the wendigo's back, intent on breaking bones and fracturing vertebrae.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
The snarl of pain from the wendigo's jaws isn't as sharp as it had been when he'd been stabbed with silver, but nor did it sound as though he was having a walk in the park. Covered in thick fur and a skeletal structure that would make biology students frown in confusion, it isn't always clear what parts of Remi are meant to go where such that as the nuckelavee fractures his pelvis and snaps a few ribs, were it not for the accompanying sound it might not be obvious that Remi was any worse for wear.
Flailing his claws in an effort to keep the thing from righting itself, Remi heaves his chin down to try and gore the nuckelavee with his antlers. Groping wildly for its head (could both heads spew Ronin-killing bile, or just the top one?) the wendigo tries to force the jaws of the rider closed. And if he overdid it and crushed the thing's jaws in the process, so be it.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
We'll preface all of this by saying that Ronin is not a cowboy.
And yet, as Remi gets the nuckelavee into precisely the right position for the sort of fuckery he has in mind, the urge to yee-haw is strong in this one.
He doesn't, of course. But he thinks about it.
The wendigo manages to force the rider's mouth shut such that only the horse head can emit a chittering screech of anger, and even then it's cut off by a terrible sound not unlike bacon when it first hits a hot pan. The cause, naturally, is the length of silver that's just snapped around its equine neck, followed by an irate Irish hunter.
To say that Ronin is riding the nuckelavee is giving both of them far too much credit. But he's on it, and it's with a silver blade that he works on gouging something into the creature's flank. Something that, when Ronin is finished, starts to harshly glow. Whatever effect it's having causes it to double down on its attempts to make Remi let it the fuck go and, leaving his chain tangled around the creature, Ronin absolutely backs the fuck up.
[say]"Regroup,"[/say] he calls to the wendigo, because fuck him if close combat doesn't look like a nasty game to be playing right now.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
It all happens quite quickly; it's a shame the CCTV is fucked because all of this would have made an excellent gif.
Determined to prove that even though he doesn't have deathly breath, he is still the better monster, Remi sees the creature's efforts to make him let go and raises it a fat fucking make me. The wendigo ignores Ronin completely, whether intentionally or because he was far too wrapped up in the moment now to be aware of the hunter's voice. Thanks to the pelvic fracture, the wendigo's legs aren't entirely under his control just now, but his ability to mute the pain-signals from his lower half make it easy enough to ignore. Thinking briefly about tearing the rider's lower jaw off only to release that it might be able to just spew its noxious gas all the more easily, Remi instead tries to break its jaw such that the lower bone would be lodged up into the creature's palette.
As for the equine bit? Well, all he can really do is avoid Ronin's chain while continuing to score it with his antlers.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
And so it's in a deadlock of literally monstrous proportions that wendigo and nuckelavee are caught. Ronin can't hear much over the muffled-but-not screeching and chittering from the flayed rider; not the sound of his own voice, not the grinding and crunching of bone and teeth and antler; not the sirens as they grow louder.
But then, wonder of wonders... it begins to rain.
It isn't real rain, of course - someone has played a fierce and violent game with a few fire hydrants, and the spray from the hoses is what creates this impromptu weather change. But it's still fresh running water, and the change in the nuckelavee is immediate. Writhing and bucking in the wendigo's grip, it might be in pain but it's also absolutely furious, and its efforts to escape Remi's grip show as much.
Kicking with hooves and swinging blow after blow down onto the strange skeletal form of the wendigo, if it can't escape the downpour without Remi, it will sure as hell bludgeon him enough to drag him along when it runs.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
Cue the video game cinematics.
Now, whether or not it's forgivable for Remi to have assumed that a vulnerability to fresh running water would mean that the thing would just..die, is something we can all debate later. For now, the wendigo stubbornly hangs on, believing that the creature would begin to melt like the wicked witch of the west. Surely the hunters (Ronin, specifically), would want a piece of this thing?
Remi feels one arm dislodge from his shoulder just before his wrist is shattered. His pelvis finally collapses beneath the weight of the nuckelavee's hooves, as does his femur and probably a few other bones lower down in his legs. Reduced to being nothing more than just a swivelling head and one arm, the wendigo roars as it tries to carve the throat away from the rider's neck.
As unconsciousness waits casually in the wings, it only just occurs to Remi that perhaps his partner had been wrong about the water.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
Very keen to trample the ever loving fuck out of the wendigo, as Remi starts to go down the nuckelavee, in utter agony or otherwise, absolutely does not let up. [say]"Let it go!"[/say] Ronin finally has the sense to shout, having assumed his partner would do just that (and aren't miscommunications fun).
With the sirens pitching to a wail now and footsteps beginning to thrum underfoot with the hunters' return, Ronin crosses the distance towards the battling monsters, armed with nothing more than a sliver of a knife and whatever he's got in his pockets.
[say]"It won't go down from this,"[/say] he's trying to call to Remi, snagging at part of the chain left free and barely dodging out of the way of an enormous, flayed arm thumping at him. [say]"Let it run before it kills you!"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
What has it got in its pocketses?
Ronin's instructions come through in a jumble. Between the wailing of the sirens, the nuckelavee's impatient click-screeches, and the battering of its hooves against Remi's bones, it's a lot even for wendigo's hearing to sort through. Kill me? He wants to say, and laugh. Unless its hooves are silver, it can't. Only instead of doing any of that, Remi merely gurgles something incomprehensible as more of his ribs are snapped beneath the soggy heft of his pelt.
Trying to disengage as best as he can, Remi lets his head loll backward as he cleaves his claws into the creature one final time before all but going limp. Black sludge covers the cement, refusing to be washed away as the 'rain' continues to fall.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 05-06-2023
Hint: it's not a bloody mary for Remi, sorry. Though they should really have drinks to celebrate.
It's always difficult to reconcile nigh impossible to kill with the state that Remi gets himself into, especially when Ronin isn't really seeing the pelted, skeletal, antlered monster, but the scrawny Italian who made him a Christmas card. And so when the wendigo finally goes limp - and the nuckelavee, tearing itself free from the silver chain and galloping at speed away from the downpour - Ronin is absolutely right by Remi's side.
Good thing, too, because with the return of the hunters, of course they've brought the scientists running from their hideyholes. [say]"That was fucking badass,"[/say] Ronin is telling the (hopefully still conscious) other man. [say]"I've got bad news, though, and it's wearing a white coat."[/say] Not Suuuuusan, not yet, though she's absolutely on her way, but Hammerdingdong to the 'rescue'. [say]"Can you shift back, do you think?"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 05-06-2023
It's lucky for nearly everyone involved that Ronin's is the first face that Remi sees. No, he isn't unconscious, and yes, there's still enough monster left in his broken and battered body to have wanted to kill any other asshole who dared to come near. Especially if that asshole had been Hinkerstinker.
Instead of answering, the wendigo simply lets his pelt and skeletal form shrink and dissolve away, leaving only a mostly naked man whose body was a grotesque imitation of what the human form should be. Remi's rib cage had entirely caved in on both sides, while his shattered pelvis had shifted entirely to the right. The bones of his legs protruded at sharp angles through his skin, and his left arm drooped impossibly low with his hand hanging at a limp angle.
[say]"Can...I have...your coat.."[/say] Remi manages in a weak voice, as his head rolls in Ronin's direction. As with so many of their hunts before, the wendigo hadn't managed to keep much of his clothing intact and with so many onlookers beginning to gaggle around, his modesty was at stake.