[Immortals' Tongue] Changes

[Vega]

He didn't stop breathing whispered words next to her and Vega leaned against him. "Arlo..." She turned to look at him, her eyes dark and focused on him. As, she recognised he was focused on her. Where they were suddenly seemed like a stupid place to be when the bedroll was warm and the tent just theirs. She'd said that they could stay in that tent till next Vhalar and why hadn't he listened? Why, come to that, hadn't she insisted Vega wondered as she moved to kiss him.

"Wot?" Vega frowned as she realised that there was no way he was making that noise and yet, she could hear it. "If yer doin' some stupid voice-throwin' thing to wig me out, it's workin. Stop it." She looked around and then back to him. "Can you 'ear that?" Moments ago, she'd had quite a different expression but now her frown was deep and thoughts of being distracted were gone from her. Thumping him on the shoulder, she gestured around. "Stop messin' about, whisperin' an' stuff when there's quite enough of it goin' on in a not good way."

Once they got to the conversation about sacrifice as well, Vega was about half a hair's breadth away from suggesting that there was a lot to be said for that tent, that bedroll and being Not Here Right Now. But she didn't get the words out because of the sound and then the... thing. Yes, it was a giant bloody spider, she thought, and it was dead. Arlo didn't like spiders? She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him that she didn't either, especially when they were that bloody big, but no sound came out, per se, just a sort of squeaking noise.

It was dead. That was what she couldn't get past, it was dead and it was moving. All eight legs, all of the millions of little squidgy eyes, they were all dead, and covered in moss. Arlo took a step backwards and that seemed like a very good idea, except she couldn't move. Her legs, which had never let her down before, refused to do as they were told. It was odd, she thought, distractedly, they'd always been compliant before. Obedient, even. She didn't really have to think and they moved, but then there wasn't usually the clack-clack noise and it was dead but moving.

"Arlo?" Her voice was high pitched, squeaky and not at all like any sound she ever made. Shrill, she thought wildly, that was what she sounded like. Shrill and terrified and about to die; the irony that she should be about to die on this trial of all of them was momentarily lost on her, although she did think with absolute clarity that she hoped Arlo didn't watch her die. It wouldn't be pretty, she thought, her mind flying at speed as her body remained frozen. Because it was dead but it was moving. All snapping mandibles and charging towards them, some vile pus-stuff oozing out of it's eyes, it was bloody well moving. More than that, it was moving towards them, fast

Which really made her wonder why she still wasn't

[Arlo Creede]

He wasn't throwing his voice in order to tease her, Arlo had insisted. He didn't think he could have even if he'd wanted to. Although it might be a nice trick to develop. It was the whispering he'd told her about, that some of his students thought was his imagination working overtime, while others had given him the benefit of the doubt. But before that trial was through, after they'd left the ruins and returned to their camp, he'd wonder about the timing. Had the voices been trying to warn them about the spider? Or on the other hand, had they been harbingers of doom. Well, maybe that was a case of imagination gone wild.

That was for later, if they survived the encounter. His first arrow had sunk in deep enough to kill any ordinary creature, had this been one. But it had been nothing more than a pinprick that appeared to have irritated the undead thing even more. It was only when he'd nocked his second arrow that Arlo realized that Vega hadn't moved. And the sound that came from her was unlike any he'd heard before. He realized in a heartbeat that she was frozen in place, her feet planted firmly where they had been before. "Vega!" he shouted, trying to get her attention as he fired again and the arrow landed between another set of eyes.

And it just kept coming. Closer to her by the split trill so he did the only thing he could think of and lunged for Vega to knock her out of the way of the charging spider. They both ended up crouched against a wall, and apparently it took some time for all of eight legs to sort themselves and change direction. Which meant the spider first scampered past them during it's charge. It bought them time, but not much. The spider was already turning round but Arlo realized his arrows wouldn't do any good. Or a sword either, probably.

It was then he spied the lantern that he'd dropped on the ground in order to get hold of his bow. A yard away from them, it was still lit. It meant leaning away from Vega instead of shielding her with his body, but as the spider charged, he flung himself at the lamp, grabbed it by its handle and flung it at the spider. At first it just bounced off but as it crashed to the ground, it shattered, the oil spilled and caught fire. The momentum of the spider prevented it stopping before it skittered through the oil, which caused the thing itself to catch fire. Back to Vega, Arlo pressed her against the wall, himself in front of her as the spider let out the unholiest of screeches as it became a blindly stumbling ball of flame.

[Vega]

It was moving and it was dead and it was, strangely she thought, making a sort of high pitched whimpering noise. Except, as she stood with her body immobile and her thoughts racing, Vega realised that it was her who was whimpering. She had never, not in all her life, made a noise like that. Yet here she was. Arlo must have heard the noise too, she reasoned, because he called her name. Which wasn't really what he should be doing, he should be getting himself out of the way. Her legs maintained in not responding and so Vega thought that she'd be better just shout, but as she opened her mouth to do that, he threw himself at her and the pair of them tumbled on to the floor.

It was what she needed, she realised, to move and she scrambled backwards until her back was against the wall, next to him. Crouched there, Vega recognised that she could move, had moved and her limbs were once again under her own control. Vega realised that she had a sword and she was moving to draw it, even at the moment that the thought came to her that Arlo's arrows had done nothing. Judging by what she was seeing, as her brain kicked back into gear, Vega knew that there was no way her sword was going to do anything.

But she'd put them in this damn situation and she had to try. She had never before frozen and later she would wonder if she had done that because of what had happened between them. However, that was something for her to consider later, assuming that they survived this. As she moved to pull her sword, Arlo dived off to the side of them and first grabbed, then threw the lamp which he had dropped previously. It worked, although as it just dropped Vega felt her heart sink, but it shattered and then, sudddenly, the spider was an enormous fireball. "ARLO!" Her voice was much more what it should be, but it was tinged with fear still.

Of course, now that fear was for him, more than herself, however as the most Immortals-awful screeching sound filled the room they were in, he pushed himself against her, forcing her back against the wall in order to protect her. Usually, such a move from him would cause her to thump him, but in this circumstance she clung on to him even as she watched it turn into a writing ball of flame. As it flailed, spinning and skittering around, small bits of flaming spider-leg flew off in every direction. Even as it died, it was dangerous and Vega frantically hit one of the small balls of flaming fur and sinew off of him as it landed on his shirt.

It was more or less inevitable that they were going to get charged in to by it, but then the accursed thing half-exploded, half-imploded as, simultaneously, the body collapsed in on itself and the fire blew out. The wall of heat hit them and there was some swatting away of bits of smouldering spider-flesh, but then, it was quiet. The smell of burnt spider-meat was prevalent.

"I'm so sorry, I've never done nothin' like that before," she said, her voice shaking. "I couldn't move. It was.. it was dead Arlo, an' movin' an.. why are we 'ere?" Really, she thought, this was not the best of ideas. "It was your stupid idea, you know. But we'd better go find it's nest. Or.. hutch.. what do giant undead spiders live in?" The last she asked, perfectly seriously and with a slight frown as she considered that she really didn't know the word for the undead spider habitat. Still, there were more important things. "Are you sure yer alright?"

[Arlo Creede]

When Arlo had swung and thrown the lamp at the spider, the plan born on a whim had been for the thing to catch fire and erupt in flames. It had, just as he'd hoped and intended. What he hadn't expected was the thing that he probably should have.

In response to being lit up, the spider began skittering blindly around the room, like a chicken with it's head cut off. It wasn't just a saying either, which was why he should have considered it. Having grown up on a farm and having witnessed his step-father butchering any number of chickens, he'd seen the phenomena before. In fact, he'd be sure to tell Vega about it later. If it wasn't done just right in fact, at just the right place, a partially beheaded chicken could live for trials, even seasons or arcs after a botched execution. You know, just in case she came to wonder.

The spider bounced blindly around the ruined room, Vega shouted and Arlo shielded her body best she could. It seemed like it took a great deal of time before it was over. And when it was, they were left to pick exploded spider bits off their clothing. Looking Vega over to make sure she was alright, Arlo reached up and pulled a strand of gunk from her hair. "I'm just fine," he said, at the same time he was looking her over to make sure she hadn't been injured or knocked about too much. And then he helped her up off the ground.

"Don't apologize. We take care of each other. It was my turn." As for the idea of hunting down the spider's lair, Arlo frowned as he put his bow away. "A web, I think?" But the larger question was why. Did she think there might be more like it, he asked her? It had been dead in a sense already, so he couldn't imagine that it had had any young to take care of...unless of course it had been only recently dead, or not dead...undead. "You know what I mean," he said and grinned a little. So far as he understood it, the only way for undead things to go forth and multiply was for more of them to die. Whichever the case, if she wanted, then he was for it and they'd hunt down the spider's web and make sure that any more like it were no more.

[Vega]

It was horrible to look at and yet, Vega looked. Watching it she was more able to appreciate it in all it's disgusting, gooey glory even as she wondered what had caused her to freeze. It collapsed in and exploded out simultaneously and Vega continued to fuss over bits of smouldering spider as he did the same with her. His reassurance that it was just his turn made her grin slightly. "Pluckin' bits of exploded undead spider out of my 'air. This is the most romantic first date ever." She just briefly rested her forehead against his and whispered to him. "I only pretended to freeze so you could jump in front of me, an' stuff." That wasn't at all true, but still it was enough that she'd apologised, he'd told her she didn't need to and they were both alright. So, she acted like it hadn't happened because there was no point worrying about it and she kissed him, brief but intense as it was before she forced herself to not focus there. That was not a good idea, she knew.

"Normally," she said, her voice much more back to normal and sounding more or less like herself. More or less, she was still pretty shaken from having frozen in the first place. "I'd say we shouldn't touch it cos it's weird an' mossy an' undead. But you know, you've just pulled some off of my 'ead an' I've done the same from you. We've touched it. Want to take some 'ome as a memento an' to turn into stuff we can make into things, an' leave for Cassion?" Would an Immortal appreciate an offering of undead spider bit? Vega couldn't say for sure that she knew, but if Arlo wanted to, then they would. If he wanted to leave it the heck alone, that was fine with her too.

"Yeah, alright, shurrup," she said, when he pointed out that spiders lived in webs. "I mean. Well. Yeah, obviously. Shurrup." Her grin was genuine at that, and she considered that the thought of a spider in a hutch was a rather foolish one. Still, she thought, yes, it was probably best that they did go and find out. Since neither of them really knew and there could be lots of little spider eggs there all just waiting to have their undead moss-covered inhabitants breaking out. Vega shuddered, suddenly, and shot a rueful grin to him. "I'm wiggin' myself right out." As they gathered up their stuff, her expression turned to a frown, though.

"I've never frozen like that. Wot if.. I mean, you know, wot if I can't fight no more cos of last night?" She sighed and looked at him, her eyes swirling shades of blue. "I mean. I know it's a really stupid thing to think, but jus' to be clear, if that's the case?" She looked utterly mischievous. "Well, you'd best get used to jumpin' in front of me, an' I'm gonna take up knittin', cos there's not a contest. Jus' so that yer clear, Arlo Creede." She felt better for saying it, because it sounded ridiculous, so she was more than convinced that it was.

However, they continued to look and, down the corridor the spider had come, the pair of them had to fight their way through an awful lot of spider web. Like, a very big amount. Vega didn't think she needed to say that the spider they killed was either ancient and therefore had been down here a very long time to make all these webs, or it had, as she put it, "an awful lot of eight legged pals..." It took slicing and cutting, if they tried to burn the web, it just didn't and they had to fight their way through in places. However, eventually, they came out of the corridor and into a room.

"Ewww, Arlo, that's disgustin'," Vega exclaimed and, in fairness, it was. There had, evidently, been a lot of spiders here, of the giant variety. However, along with making it difficult to kill, likely to terrify redheads (or so she was saying and sticking to it) and exploding in death things, it appeared that being un-dead meant that spiders became cannibals. Or... mass murderers. Inside the room was what could only be described as an incredibly gruesome collection of spider-parts. Insides were strewn out, it was truly vile. Vega turned to look at Arlo and raised her eyebrows in question as she whispered to him. "Wot d'ya think we should do?"

[Arlo Creede]

"I like to show a girl a good time," Arlo teased back when she talked about romance. It wasn't exactly candlelit dinners and walks in the moonlight. But Arlo couldn't have fathomed that those sorts of things would suit either of them. "I knew that," he added and grinned as he played along with the ruse. "A man likes to defend his woman once in a while you know." The grin was short lived however as she distracted him once again and there in a corner of the ruins, with spider glop in their hair and who knew what else clinging to them, they kissed. Arlo could have stayed that way and forgotten all about where they were, but it would be all too easy for something else as bad or worse than that spider to creep up on them.

"We've been touching that stuff already, like you say, and wading through all that moss while we were at it," he agreed with a frown. "I figure if there's going to be a problem with it, it's too late." Still she had a good idea and he might like to take some sort of souvenir back with them. Something that maybe Cassion could appreciate. "Maybe those pincers," he considered. He could take them with a good sharp knife, avoid them touching exposed flesh by doing it with his gloves still on, and then drop them into a leather sack to cinch up tight. And so being unable to resist, Arlo did just that.

He did a double take however when she wondered about the night before, and what had happened just a bit ago. And then he snorted and shook his head, grinning again. "I'd say that's pretty unlikely. But if it was so, we'll just have to pick smaller monsters to hunt down and fight." Or like she said, take up knitting. He didn't plan on them keeping their distance from each other, after all. As they went on though, in search of the spider's lair. He stayed close to Vega all the way, and there was no denying they were on the right track, considering that the further they went, the thicker the webs became. It surprised him though that the stuff didn't shrink away in response to the flame from the torch. And cutting it away wasn't easy. Before it was done he ended up with the stuff stuck on his clothing, hair and the brim of his hat.

And what they eventually found was in fact just as she said. It was disgusting and enough to turn the stomach. "I hadn't even thought of something that was undead, needing to eat at all," he said, frowning as they looked over the carnage. Made him wonder if spiders even when alive, didn't mind eating their own. So what now? He shrugged and pulled a strand of web off from the bridge of his nose. "Well everything in here is dead isn't it? Not undead, but really dead?" It might be worth it, had they the means of doing it, to seal the place off completely. "I guess that these were normal spiders before they died." Exceptionally large, but normal so far as that went, he meant. "And the one that killed them maybe is dead now, and we haven't seen another." Maybe the thing to do then, was to consider it over and done with, and return to camp?

[Vega]

A man liked defend his woman? His woman? Vega's didn't answer when he said that, but her eyes shifted through colours as she tried to think what she thought about that turn of phrase, what she felt about it. It left her with all sorts of emotions, feelings way beyond her capability to comprehend, much less vocalise, She expressed them, though, in a different manner as they forgot where they were and kissed there, in the most unlikely of romantic spots. In, it must be said, the most unlikely of romantic situations. Vega might not be able to say what she wanted to say, or even fully understand it herself, but when she felt his arms move around her, his lips on hers, Vega knew everything she needed to and she would be quite content to stay right where they were.

Which would be a long way away from sensible.

She chuckled, though and shook her head slightly when he took the spider's pincers.It had been, Vega considered, the most unusual two trials of her life. When she'd told him that the night they'd shared had been the most amazing one she had been telling the absolute truth, but just yestertrial she'd been getting on a boat to Immortal's Tongue with her friend who she was convinced was descending further into grief and who she was trying to help. Now, she was here with him, and he was using phrases like 'his woman' and confusing the life out of her. Once he had the pincers, Vega bumped against his shoulder with hers and grinned at him. "You finished lollygaggin', Creede?"

His grin and snort of amusement when she voiced the idea that somehow their night together had taken her ability to fight made her feel better and his reassurance that they'd just be hunting smaller creatures caused her mischievous grin to turn into one of delight. "Good answer," she chuckled and focused on getting through all this web. It was strange that it didn't burn, she thought and Vega wondered if they should try and take some of this webbing back home, take it and see if it could be spun into something or made into something else. But then, she figured, how would they do that? "We could get like a big long stick that's got two sort of prongs and swizzle it round an' round, collectin' the web." With a grin at him she shrugged and added. "Might become a must 'ave bit of kit fer the discernin' adventurer. A spoozlestick."

But jokes and silly names aside, what they found in that room was gross. Vega wrinkled her nose in disgust, nodding when he spoke about undead things not needing to eat. "I dunno. Maybe they didn't eat. Maybe it jus' made messes. I mean, I don't really wanna scoop stuff back in to find out 'ow much is missin, you know?" Just the thought of it made her want to chuck up and she glanced at him. Not wanting to seem like a wussie, but feeling like getting out of here was the thing to do, Vega agreed. "I dunno if we've got the capability of shuttin' it off, but yeah, I take yer point." Over and done with, for now at least. Plus, Vega had to admit that though it was freezing cold, she knew that the first thing she needed to do was wash her hair to get all the bits of spider ick out of it.

[Quio]

Overview

Comments: There is so much great stuff in this thread. Arlo and Vega's relationship, check. Undead monster spider exploding and imploding at once, check. Creepy eerie people having vanished and weird-ass glowing moss, check. Just, everything you want in a nice little adventure thread. So good.

I could go on and on about all the little things I loved in this thread. From Vega, the little funny things like 'U'frek's umbrella plant' and the 'spoozlestick'. And just a handful of really beautiful descriptions tossed in, like "down here in the flickering torch and lamp light with the strange glowing moss," and "when the bedroll was warm and the tent just theirs." These are lovely little descriptions.

And, of course, from Arlo, a few quotes: "it was a messenger sent by someone you loved who'd died" and "it took some time for all of eight legs to sort themselves and change direction" and "in the dead of winter when the world seemed to go quiet". Those are all just so good. I liked Arlo's general appreciation for having put those eggs in a jar, and I seriously love any food description you write, ever. Also the thing about beheading chickens and wanting to tell Vega about it. Just, all these funny and wonderful little things.

Between the both of you, the idea of giving up fighting for knitting because you wanna stick with one another is almost too cute. Seriously stop it. I know you probably write them into most of your threads together, but I especially liked all the little domestic touches, like Vega elbowing him or pushing him or them bumping shoulders. And all their teasing and shared grins.

I'm gonna have to read the other related threads.

VEGA

CS: CS is approved and up-to-date.

Skill Knowledge:
Combat: Blade: Draw your sword ready
Discipline: Focusing in the face of a powerful distraction
Endurance: Staying up all night
Hunting: Searching for tracks in the snow

Loot: None.
Injuries: None. Phew. No spidey-bites.
Fame: None.

Points: 15/15
Magic: You CANNOT use the XP awarded for magic.

ARLO

CS: CS is approved and up-to-date.

Skill Knowledge:
Cooking: Storing eggs for a journey
Discipline: Focusing in the face of a powerful distraction
Endurance: Staying up all night
Ranged Combat: Bow: Ready position
Ranged Combat: Bow: Anticipating moving targets
Ranged Combat: Bow: Eye shot (even when there are a lot of eyes)
Storytelling: Birds as messengers from beyond the grave
Unarmed Combat: Charge and tackle
Unarmed Combat: Breaking combat
Unarmed Combat: Shielding another with your body

Loot: 2 x pairs of undead giant spider pincer. Also, Vega and Arlo collected some of the glowing moss in a jar, so I'mma give that to you too.
Injuries: None. No spidey-bites for you either. How would Arlo keep his hat on if he was climbing the walls like Spiderman? An undead cannibalistic Spiderman. *shudders*
Fame: None.

Points: 15/15
Magic: You CANNOT use the XP awarded for magic.

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