worthallthis | The Last Voyages: IC Inbox

Sounds kinda flood-like.

[Shaw says, grinding a vine under the heel of her boot.]

Sounds more like when Jon's power went haywire and the fear spaces took over the ship, to me. Also, the timing's off. Floods almost always happen mid-month.

[He opens the stairwell door for them both.]

That was before your time, Sameen, and Steve was coma'd during it.

[Lucky bastard.]

You know, the more I hear about that one, the worse it sounds.

But on the chance that this isn't a flood - it might still have a cause we can deal with.

[He hefts the shield in front of himself.] Let me go down first. You can shoot over my shoulder.

What's with the people here just dropping stuff like that like it's no big thing?

[Shaw asks, falling back to do as requested, readying herself to snipe anything that comes into view.]

Should I be worrying about wardens' powers, too?

[Downwards is definitely the direction she's heading. Outside of holding up, reducing the number of angles from which one can be attacked is definitely a priority. And she's been through a number of fun encounters, especially with the bad creatures, as evidenced by the fact that she's covered in minor cuts and at least one larger slash from another encounter bound up on her arm.]

[But she's been in a bit of luck - crouched by her side is Beatrice, the one-meter-long Kulindradromeous who had been her pet since the dinosaur breach. Accustomed to very dangerous, very silent predators...she was a superb early warning system.]

[So far, the Webley and the large amount of ammunition she's carrying in a pack have sufficed - that and the ersatz spear she's made along the way. But it means that when she hears noises closing up on her, she's already setting a defensive pose, looking to Beatrice to gauge her reaction. Different. Does that mean people or one of the bigger things...]

Edited 2023-06-06 00:49 (UTC)

[B lets Steve lead on their way down, since he has both the shield and the serum. It only makes sense.]

Jon was kind of a special case. Avatar of a really creepy fear god. Somebody triggered his powers without his knowledge, he didn't mean for it to happen. His deal was to take that shit away so it could never happen again. He's a werewolf now, instead.

[He pauses at the sound of heartbeats up ahead, one of which sounds human but not in danger, and another... decidedly not.]

Huh. [Steve never knew that much about Jon, but the other man has always seemed full of surprises.

Either way, he calls back to Sameen:] Power's power. The idea is that a warden won't misuse it, but wardens are just people, too. Some of us aren't so smart.

[By some of us, he definitely means himself - and hey, that's when he comes up on Franky, so he doesn't have to worry about that any more.]

Hey, Franky. You and your friend wanna join the party?

[Shaw doesn't have anything close to B's superpowered hearing, but she knows how to pay close attention to her allies' body language - and so when he pauses, she pauses too, waiting for the penny to drop. She would have been fine with another monster to fight and neutralize - but another ally, particularly one in the form of Franky Cook, is even better.]

We could use a hand.

[She says after Steve makes his offer, hefting up her machine gun and propping it against her shoulder in a way that is definitely supposed to look very cool and badass.]

[And it will get an appreciative, if brief look, but it has to complete with relief that the weary, alone portion of things has come to an end. Beatrice, more to the point, has no concept of 'badass', but certain has one of 'friend' - and taps over to Shaw, hopping around her and chittering excitedly in a way that definitely says 'familiar person.' Steve and B both get a bit more of an appraising look from the little dinosaur.]

So could I, bloody glad you showed up when you did. Otherwise me and my little early warning system there would've been meat, sooner or later.

[Beatrice's beak does poke at Shaw's boot a bit with her beak. It's a move that has produced fruit before, might as well try. Life is short, fruit is tasty.]

[B is not jealous that Shaw is getting all the attention out of the dinosaur. He's not.

Okay, maybe he is a little.]

I obviously need to spend more time with you and your little pal, Franky. Look how big she's gotten. I take it she's been helping out with the hunt?

[Steve eyes the dinosaur - then Franky and her arsenal - with a rueful smile.]

It definitely would've been later. But let's make it not at all.

We're heading down, trying to clear the more cramped areas of the ship, where people might not have a clear escape route.

Vines count as veggies, right?

[He might be half-asking the dinosaur.]

[Shaw still doesn't know what to do with the dinosaur, honestly. It's an objectively badass pet, but it feels weird to treat it like a dog (even when it's acting like one), and dogs are the only animals she considers herself to be any good with. But when Beatrice hops and chitters her way, she gives her a dutiful, if slightly awkward, pat on the head.]

She gonna be okay? She's kinda small.

[She falls in next to Shaw, only leaning a little on the ersatz spear.]

She's a smart little survivor. She knows when to run, and she's got great smell and hearing - she knows something's coming before I do. But right, the sooner we're off...

I think the vines are animal, not vegetable. They bleed the same way the bats do.

[He brings up the rear for the group, letting Shaw and Franky fill in the middle of the little diamond, and Steve take the lead.]

The sooner we're off, the sooner we take out more monsters.

Ah, well. [So, no vines for this girl to eat. That's okay - he figures she'll get a well-deserved feast after all the hard work.

Which seems like it's about to start - because it's not long after they start moving that the little dino perks up and Steve slows, watching her silently for a minute before - ]

I hear it, too, [he says quietly, then glances back before pointing ahead to the common room at the end of the hall, on the left.] There's something up ahead. In there. Sounds like it's coming from something ugly.

[A sort of rumbling growl with a weird, shrieking undertone.]

Get ready, everybody.

[Shaw murmurs - staying back to let Steve continue to take point, but also stepping to the side a little, so that she can fire past him without having to worry about a friendly fire situation.]

[She looks at her compatriots, and moves to a crouching position, bracing the spear back against the deck. She's a bit to the side of Shaw and a bit ahead - out of the line of fire. In a sense, it's a very old tactic - back from the days when ranks of pikemen protected the first arquebus-firing soldiers. The Arquebus had been a powerful addition, but slow to reload - it helped to have someone to keep quick-moving enemies away.]

[And the things here update that somewhat in that they seem to require significantly more bullets to take down. But very little is willing to make itself into a kebab...at least when Shaw is in close range, if they're smart.]

[She whistles quietly, a signal - Beatrice retreating back to her and Shaw, crouching down behind Sameen. And, as backup, she flips the catch off her holster. And then, grimly:]

Once more unto the bloody breach, dear friends.

[B drops to a crouch behind the ladies, ready to fire between them and to Steve's left as needed.

The current swarm is three of the dog-sized ones and one of the human-sized ones, all loping towards them. He's keeping an ear out behind them, too, in case they're about to be boxed in.]

[Steve tenses, calculating as the targets close in, deciding,] I'll take the big one. You pick off the other ones.

[He'd like to just throw the shield, but he's technically supposed to be covering the other three, so he doesn't. The dog-sized ones are faster, anyway.

So instead, he lets the big guy get closer to give the others time to aim, waiting until the last minute and then sprinting forward, bum-rushing the monster and crashing into it with the flat of the shield - and all his weight behind it - to send it flying. It's not going to do more than daze it, probably, but at least it opens things up a little again.]

[Shaw's gut tells her that they'd be better off taking out the dogs first - the dogs that are faster, smaller, and easier to kill - before focusing their combined efforts on the bigger, slower, more invulnerable threat. It tells her that letting Steve handle any of this on his own would be a crappy move for a teammate to pull.

But he has super strength, she reminds herself. And she doesn't.

And so she doesn't argue. She shoots several times at the rightmost dog, not quite killing it dead but at least sending it sprawling to the ground.]

[She braces herself for what she knows is coming, which is the sudden charge of another one. The dog thing that charges forward runs directly into the spear, rearing back and screaming as it comes to an abrupt halt. She grunts at the impact, clawed paws of the creature reaching for her. Drawing the Webley, she fires a full brace into the creature, letting it slump down, trying to shake the incipient corpse free.]

[B helps with that, leaning around her to literally slice the body away with his Bill-killing knife blade, then firing the rifle dead center into the open flower-like mouth of the last dog-thing, sending it stumbling and then collapsing. Shaw's isn't dead, but it'll be easy to dispatch, leaving just the big guy.]

[The big guy doesn't stay down for long. And it's not happy. It roar-screams, scrabbling back up into a standing position, though the wall behind it has dented a bit, making it a bit hard for it to get to its feet. It totters, just a little, but is definitely not down for the count.

Steve backs up toward the group again, not because he's scared but because he's still intent on covering them.] I'll do it again, buddy, [he warns, but mostly he's just giving time for the other three to aim their weapons at the last remaining target.]

Let's see how this one feels about bullets, or if it likes to do things the hard way.

The Last Voyages: IC Inbox

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[If anyone wants to NPC early-warning-system-dino, feel free!]

sorry for the slow, just finished month-end close this afternoon...

noooo worries <33

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