2023.09.17: Birds and Wolf Of A Feather
| Birds and Wolf of a Feather | |
|---|---|
| Fresh Fostern takes another big step: Seeking a Totem! | |
| IC Date | September 17, 2023 |
| Players | Abril |
| Storyteller | Mercy |
| Location | Mexican Seaside Umbra |
| Spheres | Gaian Garou |
So Iris drags Abril out away from the caern and to the edge of the bawn, where she whips open a moon bridge to take them... Somewhere. Familiar scents and sounds reach Abril's ears as they step out into a hot climate, the air tinged with sea salt and the sounds of Spanish language and lively music on the air. They're not QUITE in Abril's old stomping grounds, instead closer to the ocean, and Mazatlan, but still pretty damned close. They're on the outskirts, the boarder between city and wilderness, in some pre-scouted place Iris decided would be a good safe starting point. "To the umbra with us!" And she goes. Once she's got Abril in the umbra with her, she starts laying things out. "Okay, now what I'm gonna do is wipe this horrifying goop on your eyelids," she says before literally spitting into the goop and mixing it up, "And then you're on your own. You don't have to go to the city, you don't have to go to the wilds, you just have to look for signs of Crow. I cant tell you what it'll be or how you'll find them, that's your business. Follow the signs like a trail, do what you believe Crow would expect of you, act in accordance with Crow's ways, and you'll find him at the end of your path."
"Fish!!! You need to get the fish!!!" Abril excitedly offers when she recognizes those scents and the music and the language. It might not be 'home' but Mazatlan is indeed familiar enough. It's a whirlwind though and so before she knows it, they're back to the umbra and she's blinking as the spit-bound-spirit-goop has been spread in her eyes and she nods. "Look for Crow, find signs, believe. Got it." Even now she's looking about. And seems to be focusing on looking for the highest altitude spots in the near umbra. Buildings... trees... cliff or lighthouse?
"I'll wait here for you, on the physical side." Iris says, making an eew face and wiping her fingers on a hankie post gooping. Spiritual aids are sometimes SO foul, and she's not really all that convinced that the goop is a placebo and a joke being played on the Garou by the spirits. "Meet me back here once you've done the deed, and we'll have some lunch before we go home." Umbral adventure awaits! The area's umbra looks more or less the same as any other. Wild wilderness alongside the webby constructs that mirror buildings, lots of your typical spirit gafflings of nature and element around, that sorta thing. In this Choose Your Own Adventure story, Abril's available choices are:
- Wilderness: Not too different from the woods in California, a mix of drought resistant and and lush foliage, standard wild life and so on. Great tall trees can be seen, memories of long ago. A sort of Mexican Grandmother Sequoia, if you will.
- Mazatlan: Smallish, but a big draw for tourists, it has an active city but isn't nearly as tall as Prospect is. There ARE several very tall hotels near the beach, but most of the city is fairly short.
- Ocean: There is a lighthouse on a small island connected to the beach by a strip of land. It looks like any other lighthouse really, and is there to guide cruise ships in. It's kept a ways away from the city so it's brightass light doesn't drive people crazy.
- Random Island: There's an island that's sort of a big hill sticking out of the
water, connected to the beach by a bridge. Tourist stuff happens there, be it excursions like 4 wheeling or zip lining, or local cultural theater.
Where would you like to start?
Abril starts by shifting on down to her birth form. Four legs and keen nose all the better for sniffing out well... just about anything! There's a moment of consideration, Foliage or Ocean... but in the end, it's the Light on the island that draws her in like a little shadow-y moth to a spirit-flame.
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Do me a perception+alertness vs 7 real quick, please! WHich is uh... -2 diff for Lupus I think"
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "So diff 5"
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Abril rolls Perception(4) + Alertness(5) (9 dice) vs 5 for 9 successes.
+5 +6 +6 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
It's a little bit of a walk towards the lighthouse, it'll take a hot minute to get there. Iris vanishes from the umbra to go do some shopping, so she's not there any more if Abril looks behind her. Oh the way towards the beach and the land bridge to the lighthouse island, while sniffing about and finding her best path, Abril finds a very small, very hard to spot little sign. A teeny, tiiiiiiny black feather tangled within the branches of an umbral bush. It's so small, it's probably a little bitty wing feather. From a crow? Well, POSSIBLY, it could be from a goose or a raven maybe, but still. You go looking for crow and find a black feather? Surely it's a crow's. Right after making this discovery, our wolfy heroin hears a sound of distress, some animal somewhere close by is in quite a pickle, it sounds like.
Strikes-Twice looks like she might be about to pick the itty bitty feather up in her teeth when she hears the sound of that animal's distress call. Her ears tilt forward as she tries to get a better sense of the location and the shadowy-furred wolf begins to slink in that direction.
It's not too far, just a ways into the trees, all tough and heat baked but thriving none the less. Various naturae are just sorta going about their simple little business as Abril moves amongst them. The sound comes from a young goat spirit whose leg is trapped in some kind of steely mesh, a sort of Weaver made bear trap of sorts. Left alone, the spirit will undoubtably be set upon by who knows what sort of predator, be it of the Wyld variety or the calcifying spider variety. If freed, he can be healed, or heal with a little time to itself, though it certainly wont be leaving any carrion behind if it lives. So what's the right call here? Leave it to its fate, or rescue it?
<OOC> Strikes-Twice says, "Abril's lupus-self gonna feel anti-bear-trap. It's not sportsman like hunting, leaves the prey suffering. So she'll help."
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Okay! It's a simple device, basically exactly the same as a bear trap but more webby. Web trap. She can pry the strands apart enough to free the goat's leg, that'll take.. Strengt+... Brawl? vs 6? Yeah, that sounds right. Unless you have Traps, in which case diff 5"
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "You know what"
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Strength+survival"
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "That makes way more sense"
<OOC> Strikes-Twice doesn't have traps, but does have survival!
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Strikes-Twice rolls Strength(3) + Survival(3) (6 dice) vs 6 for 2 successes.
2 4 4 5 +6 +10
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Success, but it's a little bit of a pain in the ass. Friggin spiders"
<OOC> Strikes-Twice grumble grumbles about spiders.
The sight of the little weaver trap ensnaring that poor spirit's leg gets a rumble from Strikes-Twice's throat. It doesn't take long before she swoops in, a firm growl to the goat, advicing he best not move as she begins the process of wrastling with the confounded contraption. It's harder without thumbs, but she does manage to get enough space won for the goat to wiggle his leg on free.
The goat doesn't help matters. To its perspective, it's trapped as all hell, and here comes a bigass wolf and it's DOOMED! It cries out in pain and terror, shrinking back when Abril growls. It understands the advice, but she's still scary and it's still scared. The little thing trembles, but Abril totally doesn't bite its face off! Instead, she's... ow ow ow OW! With a little struggling and a sharp jerk, the goat pulls its leg free and stumbles to the side, yelling its little head off as it gets feeling back in its lower leg. It's like pins and needles but WAY worse! It's hurt but its leg does not appear to be broken. It's bleeding, but it's gnosis, not blood, of course. And it tries to run but just sorta falls down cause its leg don't wanna support its weight. Overall, the whole thing is just super... kinda pathetic and cute in a really sad sort of way. But hooray, success! Injured goat at the edge of the forest is free! ... Now what?
Strikes-Twice steps back as the goat stumbles it's way off, head tilting as she notices the bleeding gnosis. That's not good. But life is hard. At least it's got a chance, the little bit of weaver trickiness has been removed. A look over her shoulder and the philodox turns back towards her original plan. Lighthouse!
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Another per+alert please! Hearing based this time, so your merit applies"
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Strikes-Twice rolls Perception(4) + Alertness(5) (9 dice) vs 4 for 5 successes.
1 2 3 +4 +6 +6 +8 +8 8
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Vunderbar"
To the Lighthouse! Getting down to the beach post goat release is fairly uneventful aside from the local spiritlife's antics. An argument here or there, some happy singing from a glade child, birds playing catch in the air with another black feather. You'll never manage to get it, the birds are good at their game. On the air from some unknown direction is an 'Ahhh!' sound, definitely the call of a crow, not *too* distant but definitely not close enough to spot the source of. At the beach, nearish to the land bridge, there's a scuffle in the shallow surf close by. Two crablike creatures in shells made of scavenged beach materials in a mad tussle. One of them straight up clocks the other one and drags it forcefully out of its shell. In a matter of seconds, the little bastard pops out of his shell and into the stolen one before hauling crabass towards the ocean. The other guy, he looks small and helpless outside of his shell, and quickly scuttles towards the one left behind but *damn it*, it's too small! Som'bitch just stole that poor dude's house and left him shivering out in the cold! Sure, the homelessness problem in the wild isn't quite as bad as in the human world, but it still happens.
Strikes-Twice's ears perk at the sound of the Ahhhh! but then she hears that scuffle. The strongest crab wins the shell. Sucks to be the little guy sometimes. She slows her stride, looking about the beach. There's gotta be more shells about here somewhere...
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Searching for shells?"
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Do a wits+survival vs 7, or if you've got scrounge or scan you can go diff 6"
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Strikes-Twice rolls Wits(3) + Survival(3) (6 dice) vs 7 for 2 successes.
2 4 4 5 +8 +9
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "The perfect thing doesn't jump right out at you, but you can find some possible options that look very promising. Of course, you're not the one that has to try on these new pants, so you can only be so sure"
<OOC> Strikes-Twice kicks one or two the naked crab's way.
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger rolls a mysterious die while you pose
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Mercy's Messenger rolls 1 vs 6 for 1 successes.
+6
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
Strikes-Twice is certainly no expert on shells or crabs, but she finds a two that might be roughly the right size and don't have any obvious cracks or even more obviouser current occupants. She sticks her nose in the sand and nudges two shells over towards the nakkie crab. The nose nudging might not have been the best choice as she's left snorting out a little bit of sand as she continues on, trying to listen for more caws. Looking for more feathers...
A sea bird spirit swoops in, spotting an easy lunch in the shallow water. The crab spots the shells right away and awkwardly scoot-flops towards them just in time. It makes a quick choice between the couple that Abril moved within reach, makes a decision, and zoop! Gets right up inside a shell *right* before the bird can land a peck and gobble it up. Not that the bird gives up, or pays attention to the wolf, it starts annoyingly tapping at the shell and the conversation is something like, "Hey, hey come out, I just wanna talk, I just wanna talk!" - "No! Go away! You're gonna eat me!" - "Come oooooon, just come outside for a second!" - "NUH UH!" All while the crab is scooting away, doing it's own defending of its crab toes and such while it goes. Under normal circumstances there might be a thank you for Abril, but like... It's scooting for its life right now, you understand. The land bridge itself is unremarkable, built up so that it doesn't get lost in the surf, but it's seen better days. Bit erroded. The lighthouse itself is not in great repair either. Sure it's there to 'guide in the ships', but really the ships are high tech as fuck, and so's the land teams and coast guard, light houses are just there for looks. Funding's gone down in the physical world, and it shows in the fraying and rust on the lighthouse's webby exterior and the crumbles off the concrete safety wall, though there's still a few haggard pattern spiders trying their best to keep things in shape. From way up over head, about four stories up, is the unmistakeable sound of a murder in progress. A murder of crows that is! *rimshot*. Ahem. Anyhoo, how you gettin up there, missus no-thumbs?
"Have to be early bird, catch the crab," Abril advices the gull-spirit before she continues on, carefully picking her way across the eroded land-bridge, only a few rocks tumbling down in the process. There's an excited little excited tippy taps as she hears the distinct sound of not just one, but several crows! No thumbs really are an inconvenience here seeing as there's things to scale, but Strikes-Twice can fix that... mainly by shifting up to Glabro. Thumbs + More Strength, ready for climbing!
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Okay, let's go for strength+athletics vs 5 to start" <OOC> Strikes-Twice says, "with willpower" You lose one Willpower <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Strikes-Twice rolls Strength(4) + Athletics(2) (6 dice) vs 5 for 1 successes. 1 3 4 4 +7 7 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Not bad, scaling that first floor! lemme pose it in here" <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Wait wait, couple more rolls first or this'll get all held up. Strength+athletics vs 6 for the second floor" <OOC> Strikes-Twice stubbornly wills again You lose one Willpower <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Strikes-Twice rolls Strength(4) + Athletics(2) (6 dice) vs 6 for 5 successes. 4 +6 +6 +8 +9 +9 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Nice! Vs 7 for floor three" <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Strikes-Twice rolls Strength(4) + Athletics(2) (6 dice) vs 7 for 0 successes. 1 2 3 4 6 8 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <OOC> Strikes-Twice says, "ooops" <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Oh no! Dex+athletics vs 6 to arrest your fall" <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Strikes-Twice rolls Dexterity(4) + Athletics(2) (6 dice) vs 6 for 1 successes. 1 2 3 5 +8 10 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Whew!" <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "You're half way up, do you wanna keep climbing or do you have a different plan?" <OOC> Strikes-Twice says, "can I see into the tower from where I'm hanging? Like a window? Are there stairs inside?" <OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Yeah there's a window near by you can shimmy over to. Lemme report what you see"
About half way up the tower, Abril loses her footing and misses her left hand hold, very nearly falling. It wouldn't have killed her, but it'd definitely hurt a bit and probably be really embarrassing. She can still hear the crows, but she cant see them yet. Looking around, there's a window nearby that requires some careful scooting to, but it's within reach. There's no glass in it, but there's a lot of webs. Still, through the webbing there's actually something of a living room set up with furniture and everything. The set up on the physical side really has not been moved in a very long time, and it's not in great repair either, judging from the continued fray to the webs on these furnishings. In the gloom of the unlit interior, there are some steps curving along the far wall from the first to the third floor.
Stubbornness holds through and Abril manages to keep her hold on the wall and wisely shimmies her way on over to the window instead of further up. Webbing is (probably) easier to get through than glass and she claws her way on into the tower. There is a sigh of relief as she spots the stairs and starts creeping on upwards.
It's easier, but more annoying to get through, yeah. It doesn't stick the way real world spider webs do, but that doesn't stop it from getting caught all over Abril and tangling up annoyingly. The stairs work! No collapsing or anything, though they're super skinny. It's a tight, confined sort of life in a lighthouse. The third floor is a bedroom, not really all that remarkable, and the fourth floor is a combination repair room and library, judging by the shapes of the web reflected furnishings. To get into the actual light house at the top, there's a little door to a skiiiiny set of stairs that leads to the skiiiiinny balcony around the glass housing with the spinny light thingie inside. These stairs do NOT feel sturdy like the ones inside, and four stories down into the rocky rush of the sea? Do you have the nerve?
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "Willpower vs 7 for this last leg, cause it's high"
<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======--->
Strikes-Twice rolls Willpower(7) (7 dice) vs 7 for 2 successes.
2 4 4 6 6 +8 +10
<-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->
<OOC> Mercy's Messenger says, "No vertigo OR nausea!"
As she makes it to the fourth floor and finds a bed but still no crows, Abril glances out the tiny bedroom's window as if making sure. But there's still the crow sounds up above and one more set of stairs and well... she takes a deep breath and climb-climb-climb she does, clinging on tight to the rails, knuckles turning almost white as she does so, but up she makes it!
At the top of the light house, there are crows! Several nests have been built along the balcony, using its unsteady, weathered railing as bracing and as a perch. Various sea birds visit here and there to talk noisily with the murder, share gossip and so on. Fortunately these are spirit birds, so there's not bird poops all over the place, but in the real world... bird poops all over the place. A larger nest is wedged in a higher up place where a bit of window frame has gone eskew enough to support building atop it. The crow in there isn't exactly lording over the others, but there is a sense of 'management position' to its placement and the way it does more listening than talking itself. It's larger than the others, more raven sized, with size being an expression of power in the spirit world. It spots Abril arrive and ahhhhh!'s at her. And so does everyone else, it's noisy but welcoming in a 'what's up?' sort of way.
Higher nest and larger size, it's not hard to spot the management-crow. Abril's amber eyes light up and she gives a respectful little bow of her head at the 'ahhhh' from the bird. "Crow! Came looking for you. Want to work with you. Keep eye out. Collect. Nudge. Like many Shadow Lords have before..."
Crow aaahhh!'s and replies, "Many say they would follow the path of Crow, few have the strength or the empathy to follow for long. Did you learn lessons on your way to find me? Tell me if you are worthy." There's a lot of ruckus from the rest of the crows, all of them encouraging Abril to tell them and intensely hungry for secrets and wisdoms gained.
Strikes-Twice sits on the floor, criss-crossed applesauce so she doesn't tower over the bird-spirits, especially in glabro as she still is. "Found few along the way. Goat stuck in trap, work of weaver and work of man. The sort of trap, not clean and left suffering. I pulled the metal apart enough, the goat could slip free. Next, on beach. Big crab took shell from little crab, strong taking from weak. Litany requires submission to those of higher station, but also respect those beneath. There were other shells around, I found one or two, and nudged over. It took one, right before another bird-spirit near swooped in to make dinner. Tough for bird, not-so-bad day for crab. Little things could change for either, just like that." She gives a little snap of her fingers.
As with renown, deeds are passed by the words of spirits. "It's true! It's true! I saw it!" calls one of the crows, "Yeah, and she didn't over do it with a bunch of healing!" says another. As the beach is brought up, a sea bird glowers and complains, "She stole my meal!" while a crow counters, "She gave it a fighting chance!" A little bird-fu kick boxing commences, but in a few minutes they'll forget what they were fighting about. "I saw her climb up, too!" Shouts a crow, "Came in through the window!" And another asks, "But why not the door?" And another kick boxing breaks out over "Because she didn't have thumbs when she thought of climbing!" THe big crow stands up in its nest and shakes its feathers out, both glorious and unremarkable at the same time, some how. It hops out of its nest and glides towards Abril to land on her shoulder and peck at some of the webs tangled in her hair. "Mmmm... Very well. I will accompany you, to make sure you know the bird ropes. And so you don't get too lonely in the shadows."
As for the bird that lost it's meal, Abril gives a shameless shrug of tough-luck, but her attention is quickly turned back to Crow, especially as he makes his decision. As the bird lands on her shoulder and begins to peck at the tangled web, she nudges her head against him so slightly. "Thank you. We will find many things. Not glorious things, but needed things."
"You'll need to travel light, and trust in luck, and in me, to provide." Crow says, "Survive, see, learn, help where you can in the survival of others, but never coddle. Learn what others can not, or would not have known." There's a lot of very loud cheering from the murder around them, which is a super weird sentence to type but there it is. "Let's go." says Crow, and then so much more quietly, "It's too noisy right here." Cause it really is. Sometimes your minions are a little bit extra, but that's gafflings for ya. The totem might be just a part of the over arching Crow, but even your shards want a little peace and quiet now and then!
