[Sorrow] Cabrini-Green.
A back alley.
This block of cheap flats is just outside their territory, three blocks from the edge of their last trophy pole, bleak in he umbra. The greater part of the kills on the trophy poles were made by the Eagles, who are dead or gone, their totem spirit released in the end by the last Garou of their number left alive before he vanished.
"Five murders here in the last two weeks, according to the kin," Kora says, from her position, settled on her haunches, looking up at the bleak brick building full of Section 8 apartments, leaking pipes, despair. "The last one that murder suicide that made the news. I came by last night, checked the other side. There's something there, breathing into their dreams.
"The building's old enough to have some solidity on the other side; enough that I figure we can climb the pattern web. The murders were all on the third floor. You can see the sizzle from the pattern web everywhere except for there, on the other side. I figure we take the fire escape to the roof here, cross over hidden by the equipment, then jump down, punch through, right? Maybe we'll be lucky enough to surprise it."
[Resistance] How does she hunt?
Moreover, where does she go? It isn't important, because when she is there, Sparrow is a different sort of creature. It's different, now. Their totem graced her with the instincts she tried desperately not to have- it's like her potential has been released. It's like her potential has been realized. Sparrow Turner, in brief and fleeting moments, is a predator, moreso than her rage indicates.
She nods, once, and starts up the fire escape. They both do, and even though Sparrow isn't the alpha of this pack, she takes point; protect their leader. be a shield. They go up, and clink onward. Sparrow tries to be quiet, but she is a subtle as a freight train. It's familiar.
"what do you think would break into someone's dreams?"
She doesn't talk as much as she used to.
[Sorrow] It doesn't matter that the fire escape rattles as they mount it and climb the rusty steps. Their prey is on the other side of the gauntlet, lying in deep dark wait, sunk into the fabric of the building itself somewhere, attached to the walls with lamprey mouths, dreaming dread dark dreams into desperate minds, eating fear, breathing hate, simmering in a bleak and livid soup.
Sparrow, with her skirts and her bracelets, with her desperate need to be still, mellow, at peace somehow, moves sharply, instinct riding underneath her skin, letting the wolf inside ride closer to the surface, enough that Kora can see the animal in her eyes.
"That," Kora returns, quiet. Her eyes are sharp. She pays attention to the way her packmates change. She watches. " - is something I'll leave a theurge to answer." They are on the roof, now, cinder-coated. The city is spread out around them. There's tar and trash here, oil drums, broken glass, a pair of cheap sneakers. There are big mechanisms from the heaters on the roof, and a pair of plastic lawn chairs, empty now.
It's cooler than it had been.
That wasn't te entirety of her answer, though. Chin lifted into the wind, she looks off at the city, bright.
" - I think it goes both ways, though. Right? One side and the other. The cursed spirits feed on the desperation of humans, and feed it in turn. Like a mobius strip, an endless turning loop, you can't begin to figure where it started. I know where it ends, though."
[Resistance] That is something I'll leave a theurge to answer.
She snorts, "you can never find one when you need them"
Kora knows, if only by virtue of having that totemic link with Sparrow, that someday she is going to snap. The wire pulled too tight, and all that peace and serenity and desperate desire to hold her control will be let loose. Someday, the Child of Gaia will ride her own innate savagery for all it is worth. It will be a beautiful, horrible day.
She hits the roof- it's cooler than Sparrow had expected. She stops, blinks slowly and looks at the moon. She smiles... well, more like she bares her teeth for a second. The ahroun looks at the Skald.
"It goes no further than this. We end it completely, entirely, and we walk away," she tells her. Talk about a peptalk.
(-1 rage: inspiration!)
[Sorrow] "Precisely." Quiet, that, and a sort of promise, a sort of lingering pledge.
There are shadows here, but the moon reflects gleaming across the surface of Sorrow's dark blue eyes. Low the sky and full in the west, red as the blood that will spill from them, soon. Red as the rage that twists underneath the Gaian's skin. Her mouth curls, she inhales as the touch of the Gaian's gift hits her, worms its way underneath her skin.
"I'm going to try to go through the roof on the other side; we'll be ready, yeah?"
From her pocket, Sorrow disgorges a pair of clay discs, holding one out, palm out, breaking the other. Then she spends a moment, her eyes closed, still. When she looks up again, her eyes seem - sharper, older maybe, more direct, and even the edge of her body language has changed, become broader and more masculine.
"Ready?" Quiet, the question. When she receives an affirmative answer, she pulls out a mirror, finds her reflection, and pushes through.
[-1 Gnosis, soak talen. Rolling for ancestors - > Brawl!]
[Sorrow] Ancestors
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]
[Resistance] She nods, and doesn't say anything just yet. Sparrow rolls her shoulders back, and seems more than ready just the way that she is. She looks down and pulls at one of her bracelets, hard enough that it breaks, and something seems to shift. Something is different, and leaves dirt and chalk marks on her wrists over the scars.
"Ready," she tells Kora.
[soak talen!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 (Failure at target 7)
[Sorrow] The other side of the world is bleak here; hollowed out, darker. Underneath, the pattern web hums. In the distance, they can see the way the office towers thrust against the sky, wrapped about with pattern webbing, gleaming with light. Here, things are bleaker, that terrible blend of weaver and wyrm that make a blight - the slink of a murder spirit through a calcified den of marching mediocrity, sameness, order. The corruption here is not as deep, not as abiding as it would be further from their territory, barren but clean, scoured, abraded of the foul things that live in the night.
It is here, though.
They can feel it in their bones.
The shape of the building is - less substantial, underneath their feet the surface feels thin. They stand on shadowsubstance and pattern-webbing gone black from the blooming corruption underneath. There is a fetid scent, like putrefaction, like human flesh left to deliqueisce in the sun for days upon days.
They emerge on the roof, pushing away the pattern webs from hands and eyes, from the feeling of it around their throats, this fractured, shattered-glass sense of the world. Sorrow takes Crinos, bursting into the warform as soon as she regains her senses, and unsheathes her claws, literally carving a hole in the substance of the roof where the corruption begins. Instinctually, she walks widdershins, the pattern for performing a rite of cleansing, muscle memory, that.
When the hole is carved, she takes hispo, bristling and sharp, ready to jump through the custom-made werewolf-sized hole she's carved in the roof.
[Resistance] Changing forms doesn't take her the time it used to. She is in crinos soon enough. When they had crossed over, some of her bracelets were left on the other side, lingering as that they weren't dedicated to her. The rest, though, remain. She is no larger than the average warrior, no more impressive than anyone else. Hints of what might-have-been-a-battle linger and are more obvious in her war form than anywhere else. She follows down the hole, and draws her knife. The female doesn't use it often.
Not unless she's in the umbra, at least. Or the target dictates it. We digress, though, and she contineus onward. Her eyes follow teh details of the area. The scent lingers in her fur, stings her eyes, would make her wretch in any other form, but hte moon is too full-
All it does is make her blood boil. Remind her that she is not human. That the offenses committed here are a crime against her very nature. All of their natures. In crinos, Sorrow and Sparrow are of equal footing, at least. Just as fast, just as strong, just as lethal.
[Sorrow] Resistance pulls her knife; Sorrow takes her direwolf form. Together they plunge down through the carved hole like some feral memory of Alice-in-Wonderland -
- and find themselves standing in what seems to be a perfectly solid apartment, not the sort of ghostly half-memory one expects in the umbra. Except for the hole in the roof that lets in the light, the walls are solid, the ugly yellow light, the water stains on the ceiling, the peeling wallpaper, some rococo green floral, seems real. There's an impression of a 1950s style fridge, sleek as a bullet train, where the living room would bleed into the dining room. They have half a moment for reflection.
-- because there's something on the floor like liquid oil, this livid shadow that coalesces, gathers into itself, surges to a sort of choking life, widens to blot out any view of the kitchen. Two arms with claws like hooks, and a head that seems to be nothing more than a mouth full of sharp white teeth, needle-fine.
(Inits!)
[Sorrow] Claws +6
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2
[Resistance] [8+1d10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Sorrow] Head +8
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5
[Sorrow] Sorrow: +9
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Sorrow] Order:
Sorrow: 13
Head: 13
Resistance: 12
Claw 1 + 2: 8
[Sorrow] Claw 1: Hoook! Resistance.
[Sorrow] Claw 2: Hooook! Sorrow.
[Resistance] [Action! -1 WP, resist pain
1a: stab the clawed thing
1b: again!
r1: once more
r2: seriously
(change to claw 2 if applicable)]
[Sorrow] Head: 1. Desssssspair on Sorrow. 2. Blast! Resistance.
[Sorrow] Sorrow: 1a. Bite; 1b. Bite! Rage 1: Bite! Rage 2: Bite! Starting with Claw 1. Moving to Claw 2!
[Sorrow] Bite 1: -2
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 4, 5 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Bite 2: -3
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 1 Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 8 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Despair on Sorrow
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7)
[Sorrow] Resist! [WP represents the inspiration sux!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]
[Sorrow] Blast Resistance!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Oww!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 5, 6, 6, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Stabbity: A precise stab!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Resistance] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [RAAAAR!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]
[Resistance] [AGAIN]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 1: x.x
[Sorrow] Claw 2: HOOOOOK Kora.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Kora: Rage 1! Claw 2.
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage pool: 15. Damage first roll.
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Damage'!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 2: SOAK.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [stabbin' claw 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 5 at target 4)
[Resistance]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Rage 2: BITE
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 6 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Poor claw 2...]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 1 at target 4)
[Resistance] [take pity on it, dicegods!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] End round 1. Declares for Round 2:
Sorrow
Head
Resistance
Claw 2
Claw 2: HOOOOOK, Sorrow!
[Resistance] Sparrow:
1a: stab claw 2
1b: stab again
r1: again
r2: again
move to head if dead!
[Sorrow] Head: 1. BLAST Sorrow. 2. BITE Resistance.
[Sorrow] Sorrow: 1a. BITE Claw 2.
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5) Re-rolls: 3
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 2: x.x
[Sorrow] 1b. BITE Head
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 5) [WP] Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: SOAK
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: BLAST Sorrow
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] SOAK!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: BITE Resistance
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Stab!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 7 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1
[Resistance] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Again!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 5 (Failure at target 4)
[Sorrow] Rage 1:
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6 (Success x 4 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Rage 2:
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [rage 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]
[Resistance] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [rage 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1
[Resistance] [seriously]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] x.x!!!!
[Sorrow] What happens is -
- the darkness bubbles along the floor, boils from the ceiling. There is a sense of heat and then cold, this frission of the two of them, together, extreme.
The spirit they fight has no clear sense of form. Its edges are ragged and insubstantial - wavering with a sense of heat, the way a mirage waves against the horizon, among the dunes of some shimmering desert, the promise of an oasis, some trick of the eye. Whatever it is, it draws itself up, with this heavy physical presence, a miasma of taint in the air strong enough that they can taste it.
The fight is brief. They move together like a pack, tearing into first one amorhous, oily arm, then the next. The mouth opens like something on a hinge, so wide it seems like a diorama of something from nightmares rather than anything like a head of a beast with the mouth of a beast with the needle-teeth of a simmering murder-beast, but so it is.
- there's blood. The scent of scorched fur. Resistance is blasted with a sort of harrowing cold, the kind that leaves behind third degree burns, like liquid nitrogen. Sorrow hears a song so deep and hollow she could drown in it, but is buoyed by the strength of her packmate, by her presence, that gleams with the promise of the full moon. The second hook sinks deep into Sorrow's shoulder, pulls back, tearing through muscle, shattering bone, opening her up, pulling her closer. Then they refocus, together, tear the second arm from its connection to the head and it falls, inky blackness dissolving, leaving behind the hooks, just the hooks, just the claw-like hooks.
Together, one, they launch themselves at the mouth now, at the main body. Now sorrow feels that blast of cold, liquid nitrogen, shattering. Shakes it off and surges forward, and needle-teeth sink into Resistance's hide, without tearing away flesh.
The body is solid, survives a blow that would have laid out a Garou, pulls its essence back into itself, gathering to blast them both again.
Instead, one seizes, then the other flashes a knife, fixes it. They pull -
- and the thing zippers open, dissolving in a great wash at their feet.
A back alley.
This block of cheap flats is just outside their territory, three blocks from the edge of their last trophy pole, bleak in he umbra. The greater part of the kills on the trophy poles were made by the Eagles, who are dead or gone, their totem spirit released in the end by the last Garou of their number left alive before he vanished.
"Five murders here in the last two weeks, according to the kin," Kora says, from her position, settled on her haunches, looking up at the bleak brick building full of Section 8 apartments, leaking pipes, despair. "The last one that murder suicide that made the news. I came by last night, checked the other side. There's something there, breathing into their dreams.
"The building's old enough to have some solidity on the other side; enough that I figure we can climb the pattern web. The murders were all on the third floor. You can see the sizzle from the pattern web everywhere except for there, on the other side. I figure we take the fire escape to the roof here, cross over hidden by the equipment, then jump down, punch through, right? Maybe we'll be lucky enough to surprise it."
[Resistance] How does she hunt?
Moreover, where does she go? It isn't important, because when she is there, Sparrow is a different sort of creature. It's different, now. Their totem graced her with the instincts she tried desperately not to have- it's like her potential has been released. It's like her potential has been realized. Sparrow Turner, in brief and fleeting moments, is a predator, moreso than her rage indicates.
She nods, once, and starts up the fire escape. They both do, and even though Sparrow isn't the alpha of this pack, she takes point; protect their leader. be a shield. They go up, and clink onward. Sparrow tries to be quiet, but she is a subtle as a freight train. It's familiar.
"what do you think would break into someone's dreams?"
She doesn't talk as much as she used to.
[Sorrow] It doesn't matter that the fire escape rattles as they mount it and climb the rusty steps. Their prey is on the other side of the gauntlet, lying in deep dark wait, sunk into the fabric of the building itself somewhere, attached to the walls with lamprey mouths, dreaming dread dark dreams into desperate minds, eating fear, breathing hate, simmering in a bleak and livid soup.
Sparrow, with her skirts and her bracelets, with her desperate need to be still, mellow, at peace somehow, moves sharply, instinct riding underneath her skin, letting the wolf inside ride closer to the surface, enough that Kora can see the animal in her eyes.
"That," Kora returns, quiet. Her eyes are sharp. She pays attention to the way her packmates change. She watches. " - is something I'll leave a theurge to answer." They are on the roof, now, cinder-coated. The city is spread out around them. There's tar and trash here, oil drums, broken glass, a pair of cheap sneakers. There are big mechanisms from the heaters on the roof, and a pair of plastic lawn chairs, empty now.
It's cooler than it had been.
That wasn't te entirety of her answer, though. Chin lifted into the wind, she looks off at the city, bright.
" - I think it goes both ways, though. Right? One side and the other. The cursed spirits feed on the desperation of humans, and feed it in turn. Like a mobius strip, an endless turning loop, you can't begin to figure where it started. I know where it ends, though."
[Resistance] That is something I'll leave a theurge to answer.
She snorts, "you can never find one when you need them"
Kora knows, if only by virtue of having that totemic link with Sparrow, that someday she is going to snap. The wire pulled too tight, and all that peace and serenity and desperate desire to hold her control will be let loose. Someday, the Child of Gaia will ride her own innate savagery for all it is worth. It will be a beautiful, horrible day.
She hits the roof- it's cooler than Sparrow had expected. She stops, blinks slowly and looks at the moon. She smiles... well, more like she bares her teeth for a second. The ahroun looks at the Skald.
"It goes no further than this. We end it completely, entirely, and we walk away," she tells her. Talk about a peptalk.
(-1 rage: inspiration!)
[Sorrow] "Precisely." Quiet, that, and a sort of promise, a sort of lingering pledge.
There are shadows here, but the moon reflects gleaming across the surface of Sorrow's dark blue eyes. Low the sky and full in the west, red as the blood that will spill from them, soon. Red as the rage that twists underneath the Gaian's skin. Her mouth curls, she inhales as the touch of the Gaian's gift hits her, worms its way underneath her skin.
"I'm going to try to go through the roof on the other side; we'll be ready, yeah?"
From her pocket, Sorrow disgorges a pair of clay discs, holding one out, palm out, breaking the other. Then she spends a moment, her eyes closed, still. When she looks up again, her eyes seem - sharper, older maybe, more direct, and even the edge of her body language has changed, become broader and more masculine.
"Ready?" Quiet, the question. When she receives an affirmative answer, she pulls out a mirror, finds her reflection, and pushes through.
[-1 Gnosis, soak talen. Rolling for ancestors - > Brawl!]
[Sorrow] Ancestors
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]
[Resistance] She nods, and doesn't say anything just yet. Sparrow rolls her shoulders back, and seems more than ready just the way that she is. She looks down and pulls at one of her bracelets, hard enough that it breaks, and something seems to shift. Something is different, and leaves dirt and chalk marks on her wrists over the scars.
"Ready," she tells Kora.
[soak talen!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 (Failure at target 7)
[Sorrow] The other side of the world is bleak here; hollowed out, darker. Underneath, the pattern web hums. In the distance, they can see the way the office towers thrust against the sky, wrapped about with pattern webbing, gleaming with light. Here, things are bleaker, that terrible blend of weaver and wyrm that make a blight - the slink of a murder spirit through a calcified den of marching mediocrity, sameness, order. The corruption here is not as deep, not as abiding as it would be further from their territory, barren but clean, scoured, abraded of the foul things that live in the night.
It is here, though.
They can feel it in their bones.
The shape of the building is - less substantial, underneath their feet the surface feels thin. They stand on shadowsubstance and pattern-webbing gone black from the blooming corruption underneath. There is a fetid scent, like putrefaction, like human flesh left to deliqueisce in the sun for days upon days.
They emerge on the roof, pushing away the pattern webs from hands and eyes, from the feeling of it around their throats, this fractured, shattered-glass sense of the world. Sorrow takes Crinos, bursting into the warform as soon as she regains her senses, and unsheathes her claws, literally carving a hole in the substance of the roof where the corruption begins. Instinctually, she walks widdershins, the pattern for performing a rite of cleansing, muscle memory, that.
When the hole is carved, she takes hispo, bristling and sharp, ready to jump through the custom-made werewolf-sized hole she's carved in the roof.
[Resistance] Changing forms doesn't take her the time it used to. She is in crinos soon enough. When they had crossed over, some of her bracelets were left on the other side, lingering as that they weren't dedicated to her. The rest, though, remain. She is no larger than the average warrior, no more impressive than anyone else. Hints of what might-have-been-a-battle linger and are more obvious in her war form than anywhere else. She follows down the hole, and draws her knife. The female doesn't use it often.
Not unless she's in the umbra, at least. Or the target dictates it. We digress, though, and she contineus onward. Her eyes follow teh details of the area. The scent lingers in her fur, stings her eyes, would make her wretch in any other form, but hte moon is too full-
All it does is make her blood boil. Remind her that she is not human. That the offenses committed here are a crime against her very nature. All of their natures. In crinos, Sorrow and Sparrow are of equal footing, at least. Just as fast, just as strong, just as lethal.
[Sorrow] Resistance pulls her knife; Sorrow takes her direwolf form. Together they plunge down through the carved hole like some feral memory of Alice-in-Wonderland -
- and find themselves standing in what seems to be a perfectly solid apartment, not the sort of ghostly half-memory one expects in the umbra. Except for the hole in the roof that lets in the light, the walls are solid, the ugly yellow light, the water stains on the ceiling, the peeling wallpaper, some rococo green floral, seems real. There's an impression of a 1950s style fridge, sleek as a bullet train, where the living room would bleed into the dining room. They have half a moment for reflection.
-- because there's something on the floor like liquid oil, this livid shadow that coalesces, gathers into itself, surges to a sort of choking life, widens to blot out any view of the kitchen. Two arms with claws like hooks, and a head that seems to be nothing more than a mouth full of sharp white teeth, needle-fine.
(Inits!)
[Sorrow] Claws +6
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2
[Resistance] [8+1d10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Sorrow] Head +8
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5
[Sorrow] Sorrow: +9
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Sorrow] Order:
Sorrow: 13
Head: 13
Resistance: 12
Claw 1 + 2: 8
[Sorrow] Claw 1: Hoook! Resistance.
[Sorrow] Claw 2: Hooook! Sorrow.
[Resistance] [Action! -1 WP, resist pain
1a: stab the clawed thing
1b: again!
r1: once more
r2: seriously
(change to claw 2 if applicable)]
[Sorrow] Head: 1. Desssssspair on Sorrow. 2. Blast! Resistance.
[Sorrow] Sorrow: 1a. Bite; 1b. Bite! Rage 1: Bite! Rage 2: Bite! Starting with Claw 1. Moving to Claw 2!
[Sorrow] Bite 1: -2
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 4, 5 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Bite 2: -3
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 1 Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 8 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Despair on Sorrow
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7)
[Sorrow] Resist! [WP represents the inspiration sux!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]
[Sorrow] Blast Resistance!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Oww!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 5, 6, 6, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Stabbity: A precise stab!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Resistance] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [RAAAAR!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 9 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]
[Resistance] [AGAIN]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 1: x.x
[Sorrow] Claw 2: HOOOOOK Kora.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Kora: Rage 1! Claw 2.
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage pool: 15. Damage first roll.
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6 (Failure at target 6)
[Sorrow] Damage'!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 2: SOAK.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [stabbin' claw 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 5 at target 4)
[Resistance]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Rage 2: BITE
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 6 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Poor claw 2...]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 1 at target 4)
[Resistance] [take pity on it, dicegods!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] End round 1. Declares for Round 2:
Sorrow
Head
Resistance
Claw 2
Claw 2: HOOOOOK, Sorrow!
[Resistance] Sparrow:
1a: stab claw 2
1b: stab again
r1: again
r2: again
move to head if dead!
[Sorrow] Head: 1. BLAST Sorrow. 2. BITE Resistance.
[Sorrow] Sorrow: 1a. BITE Claw 2.
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5) Re-rolls: 3
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Claw 2: x.x
[Sorrow] 1b. BITE Head
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 5) [WP] Re-rolls: 1
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: SOAK
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: BLAST Sorrow
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] SOAK!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Head: BITE Resistance
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Stab!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 7 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1
[Resistance] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Resistance] [Again!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 5 (Failure at target 4)
[Sorrow] Rage 1:
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6 (Success x 4 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Rage 2:
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 5)
[Sorrow] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [rage 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 4) [WP]
[Resistance] [damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[Resistance] [rage 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 4) Re-rolls: 1
[Resistance] [seriously]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[Sorrow] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Sorrow] x.x!!!!
[Sorrow] What happens is -
- the darkness bubbles along the floor, boils from the ceiling. There is a sense of heat and then cold, this frission of the two of them, together, extreme.
The spirit they fight has no clear sense of form. Its edges are ragged and insubstantial - wavering with a sense of heat, the way a mirage waves against the horizon, among the dunes of some shimmering desert, the promise of an oasis, some trick of the eye. Whatever it is, it draws itself up, with this heavy physical presence, a miasma of taint in the air strong enough that they can taste it.
The fight is brief. They move together like a pack, tearing into first one amorhous, oily arm, then the next. The mouth opens like something on a hinge, so wide it seems like a diorama of something from nightmares rather than anything like a head of a beast with the mouth of a beast with the needle-teeth of a simmering murder-beast, but so it is.
- there's blood. The scent of scorched fur. Resistance is blasted with a sort of harrowing cold, the kind that leaves behind third degree burns, like liquid nitrogen. Sorrow hears a song so deep and hollow she could drown in it, but is buoyed by the strength of her packmate, by her presence, that gleams with the promise of the full moon. The second hook sinks deep into Sorrow's shoulder, pulls back, tearing through muscle, shattering bone, opening her up, pulling her closer. Then they refocus, together, tear the second arm from its connection to the head and it falls, inky blackness dissolving, leaving behind the hooks, just the hooks, just the claw-like hooks.
Together, one, they launch themselves at the mouth now, at the main body. Now sorrow feels that blast of cold, liquid nitrogen, shattering. Shakes it off and surges forward, and needle-teeth sink into Resistance's hide, without tearing away flesh.
The body is solid, survives a blow that would have laid out a Garou, pulls its essence back into itself, gathering to blast them both again.
Instead, one seizes, then the other flashes a knife, fixes it. They pull -
- and the thing zippers open, dissolving in a great wash at their feet.
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