Spooktacular Extravaganza: When Chipmunks Attack!

[yarrharr]

As the party carries on, the storm outside has worked into a frenzy. The wind howls and bellows and the water at lasts breaches the top deck. Beneath the waves, the shadows move, converging upon one single point and suddenly...

BAM!

The Black Tide shudders at the impact, water spilling through the cracks made in its hull. A leathery appendage pushes against the damage, seeking entry before it is finally swatted away in favor of something a little more dramatic.

Another BOOM rocks the boat and finally its hull is breached. The tentacle slithers in and begins to crush whatever it can wrap itself around.

As passengers right themselves, and food is quickly cleaned from the floor and walls, Rowe turns to Iseul and Mica, her face red and eyes wild, pointing sharply at the door. "Well? What are you waiting for, you bastards? FIX THIS!"

When they are gone, Rowe snatches up her goblet and drains it dry until the very last drop. When she sets it down, the chipmunks attack.

((The chipmunks are enormous! As they swarm into the Pourhouse, passengers will be scooped up and packed into their cheeks or stuffed into their fannypacks! Have fun with that. IMPORTANT MOD EDIT!!! We totally forgot to mention that any passenger successfully nabbed and taken away by a chipmunk will be automatically dropped. Where are they going? Nobody knows! If you would like to drop your character, here's your chance!))

Comments

[nonhuman]

Bennett winces a little when he hears Geralt shouting above him, but he's a little confused as to why the man isn't speaking French. Most of the people in that hospital had been Francophones, right? 'Cause. Montreal. Lots of French. He remembers getting knocked out when that big dog-thing tackled him to the ground, and it bit him, right...?

Wait. Ben's eyelids flutter as he struggles to sit up at all, the din of chipmunks and passengers and sliding tentacles coming back around. He can't quite get a handle on what's going on around him, but he's at least aware of where he is, for the most part. It sure as hell isn't Canada.

"Montreal was ten years ago," he says to himself in a quiet voice, lost in the chaos.

[butcherofblaviken]

Ben was babbling, which was both a good and a bad sign. The good part was that he had wits enough to talk. The bad part was that he lacked the wits to know when and where he was. Geralt grunted, bent at the waist and slung the werewolf over his shoulder. Being a mutant (and used to hard labour besides), Geralt found Ben's skinny weight easy enough to handle. Even tipsy.

"Let's get you out of here," Geralt muttered and stepped over chipmunk corpses and the scattered wreckage of the party towards the door. Once there, he turned back and made a sharp whistle with his teeth.

"Lily!" He called. "Ben's safe! Come guard us while I examine him!"

And Geralt stepped through the wreckage of the doors as the ship began to stabilise. The frown didn't leave his face, though. Ben was hurt.

"Fucking shit," Geralt swore. "Let's hope your lycanthropy is the type with healing, my friend."

[dogfighting]

Lily takes down one last chipmunk with a table leg in the eye, then turns and rushes towards Geralt and Ben. She stays alert, ready to combat a swarm of chipmunks--But as the ship stops shuddering, the chipmunks run. Lily stands in the hall among the debris, a fragment of wood raised like a weapon, tensed and ready to fight as she watches the chipmunks flee one by one.

When they're all gone, she lowers her weapon and drags her feet all the way back to Geralt and Ben.

She hasn't had to fight for her life in a long, long time.

"Is Ben okay?"

[nonhuman]

This isn't Montreal, this is that place. The... the Black Tide. He cracks open an eye right as Geralt heaves him over his shoulder and he groans a little.

"S-supposed to heal. Shitty time to, t-to get hurt. Faster at the moon." He's speaking slowly, trying to make sure he's understood. He feels like he's talking with marbles in his mouth, and his sinuses feel like someone shoved cotton up his nose and threaded it into his brain.

It doesn't hurt anymore, at least.

Oh. Oh, that's Lily. He gives a thumbs up, though he's not sure if she can see him or not. Wherever he is. He's not even entirely sure if he's upside-down.

[butcherofblaviken]

"He's a werewolf, so he should heal up fine," Geralt says, but without any malice in his voice. Ben is a monster (since he's a werewolf), but he's not a malicious one, and while Ben has killed... he's either very, very good at pretending to be harmless or he's just genuine and scared. Geralt leans towards the latter at this point. He's seen no evil in Ben, and less in Lily--though his Witcher suspicion tell him he shouldn't let anything that's possibly a threat get near the peasants, the non-fighters.

But is she a threat?

Lily reaches out a hand to touch Ben's face. The look in her eyes isn't monstrous. She defended Geralt. She's perhaps a mutant like him, and mutants aren't necessarily evil. Again, Geralt hopes that he won't be compelled to fight Lily. He likes her, too.

Geralt adjusts Ben's head and passes a finger back and forth to test the other man's tracking reflex. The head tilts back, then forward and--yup, Ben's eyes stay fixed on an object when tilted. Geralt can't possibly know why that's such an important sign, but all he knows is that men whose eyes roll around in their heads after a headwound almost always die. Geralt breathes a sigh of relief.

"He'll be okay. He just got knocked dizzy. Didn't you, Ben?" Geralt says, patting Ben's shoulder. "Proved himself a real man today. And you, Lily, the worth of any warrior, man or woman."

[dogfighting]

"Thanks."

Lily sits down cross-legged and leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees so she can take a breather. She finally gets to sit down for the first time in--How long were they fighting? How long was she beating the shit out of chipmunks? She doesn't even want to know. Lily just wants to go back to her room and take a Zeshat-damned nap.

"D'you know why those things were so huge?" she wonders. She props her chin up on her hand and watches over Ben as he remembers how to think. "And what did they even want?" She pauses then, rubbing at her face with both hands. She is absolutely covered in chipmunk blood. They all are. Fucking gross. "And why were they grabbing passengers?"

[nonhuman]

"Pro'bly f-fucked up something again, but I'll be fine," he mutters to Geralt, trying to pat the man's hand on his shoulder and just hitting his shoulder instead. Well, that probably looked stupid.

He listens to Lily's concerns and pushes his glasses up into his hair. He can't see through them, anyway, and they leave a near-perfect ring of clean skin around his eyes. "We... could maybe. Maybe ask Chase."

Chase, you know. You know, the guy? He winces and tries to think again. Why can they ask him? Oh! Crew. He's crew.

"Wait, shit." Ben tries to sit up, and actually gets pretty close to vertical, though his arms are shaking under his slight weight. He looks around, very obviously unfocused. Not having his glasses on doesn't help, either. "What-- wh-what about the others? Anyone... anyone else like me?" What was he? Oh! "Anyone hurt?"

[butcherofblaviken]

"They were enchanted rat-creatures," says Geralt, like that explains everything. To Geralt, it kinda does. Why is something screwed up? Magic. That's the usual explanation for everything unpleasant or dreadful in his world. "They were kidnapping them, as far as I could tell. I don't know if they actually escaped with anyone..."

Geralt squints down at Ben, who is muttering like an amnesiac. Hopefully there's no brain damage. Geralt helps Ben to sit up, one arm behind his back.

"Easy. Who's Chase? And the others are fine."

[dogfighting]

"Chase is... He's my brother, kinda. That's a long, long story." Her tone very heavily implies that she does not want to get into it. She'll tell Geralt and Ben all about her weird sibling relationship with a guy on the crew, but she can do it tomorrow. "He's probably okay."

She grabs the topmost skirt of her formerly fancy princess dress and cleans her face on the fabric. It doesn't help much.

"Did you see anybody get taken? When there was a pirate attack on the Elegante, some people got taken, and I... never heard from them again."

[nonhuman]

Nooooo, no no no no. Ben waves his hand a little, trying to turn the topic back, but he's already losing a little focus on what his concerns were in the first place. "Ch-chase might, know. Know the chipmunks. Or, or why the chipmunks."

The edges of his vision are getting fuzzy again, like film slowly being exposed to light. He has a thought, something he wants to add, but it slips away just as quickly, pulling his consciousness with it. He slumps into Geralt's shoulder.

[butcherofblaviken]

Geralt looks down at Ben, who's passed out again. If he had smelling salts, he'd try to revive the man, but he's not a medic. Luckily, he's been informed there's a healer on board. Magic or herbs, Geralt doesn't care, as long as the healer can restore Ben to a healthy condition.

"Your brother, hn? This all gets more and more complex. I'll want to hear the complete story later, understand, Lily?" Geralt says, and starts picking the unconscious Ben up over his shoulders. "For now, let's get him to the barber or the sisters, or whoever does the herbalism on this ship."

Geralt has long since given up trying to understand how everything on this boat works.

[dogfighting]

Lily has no clue what barbers or herbalism are, but she gets the gist. Ben needs medical attention, and he needs it now. Lily looks around the area quickly, assessing how many people are still there and if they need assistance.

"There's a sickbay on deck--Uh... I don't know, but it's above us somewhere. You'll probably know it when you see it. Tell the doc that Ben smacked his head on the deck. Me, I think I'm gonna stay down here and check up on everyone."