kansas ♔ you have too much fun breaking all the rules

[cigam]

WHO || Gus, Zatanna, Adam, Dawn, Dimitri [closed]
WHAT || The Knights investigate a multiple homicide that seems linked to ritualistic magic use, in backwater Kansas
WHERE || Black Bottom Ridge, Kansas
WHEN || April 8th [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam or prose

Know what's even worse than Kansas? Kansas after a long winter that just won't die. Everything is creepy and flat and the grass is struggle-bussing its way back to life, and the trees are still skeletal, which just lends an eerie semblance to everything as they drive by. Drive by with a U-Haul attached to the back of her their rented vehicle, because they're bringing a fucking bear along. Luckily Gus was able to coax her into this arrangement, but man, I would not to be the one to draw the short straw opening the doors to that trailer when they arrive.

It only took a single stop at a crappy diner for Zatanna to get someone to spill the whereabouts of the survivor of the night they're looking into: she's being kept at a hospital in the nearest actual city. Zee drops off Adam, Dimitri, and Gus near the crime scene, and takes Dawn with her to go see what they can learn from the girl (after telling Gus to behave).

 

Comments

[ex_psionic439]

[Adam takes the opportunity to wipe some of the blood from is face, which is probably blinding him a lot more than the fucking fairy dust this dude's throwing around right now. It don't even matter though, because whatever he wipes away is replaced just as quickly. Alas, the severity of his wounds hit him all of the sudden and he crit fails his concentration check to gain psionic focus.]

Seriously, kill tentacle rape cats now and catch up later please. [He doesn't want to end up like Farmer John over here.]

[rituals]

[ once it's clear that zee's spell had immobilized the big kitty, Constantine takes the steps back down to her side, looking over the limp monster. ] Your friends have a point, love. [ he sounds morbidly amused, as he flicks his fingers together. ] Igniculus. [ electricity crackles between his fingertips, and he grabs the beast by the scruff of the neck, shocking it (10 dmg). His lips curve up in a grimace that turns into a cheekier grin as he glances over at zatanna, an intimate familiarity in his grimly set gaze. ] We've got to stop meeting like this.

[likeagod]

[No really, now is not the time.

Dimitri is just going to be all business, though, because the sooner they dispatch this creature the sooner it will stop attacking them. After evading his attacks, Dimitri pushes forward, hoping to keep his advantage by stabbing into the creature's neck (atk 20 total, dmg 10)]

1/2

[herebemonsters]

[ dimitri's stake punctures the skin, and blood spurts everywhere. the creature staggers, blind and bloodied, and wildly flails tentacles once more, but they slice through the air since it can't see where y'all even are. its teeth snap and spittle flies as it snarls.

the pack leader is... still paralyzed so there's that. ]

[cigam]

[ zatanna snaps her jaw shut as she half-glares at constantine, obviously rattled by his appearance, either from surprise or something else. ] Move. [ she gives him a moment of caution to step back before she raises her hand and says: ] Nosirp fo eci! [ (spellcraft 43) ice starts to form swiftly around the paralyzed beast before he can move again, freezing in a large block around him, until he's all but trapped by it all. she looks up at the others, glancing back at constantine out of the corner of her eye ] We have to make sure it's not the kid.

[druidisms]

[ gus doesn't have dispel magic, so... he's sort of at a loss as to how to make sure (or fix it once they are sure). unless adam can. he swipes the blood off his face and twists his hand, a ball of flames appearing in his palm that he hurls at the blood blind beast. (produce flame ranged atk 20 total, dmg 10) another ball of flames blossoms in his hand once the first is thrown. ]

Adam, can you see if there is a kid in there? [ you know, telepathically. ]

[herebemonsters]

[ nooooooooooooo blind glowbug... got incinerated 8( r.i.p.

since scruffy mcpack leader is in an ice coma, we can end init and go back to freeform. call for dibs in the init plurk! ]

[ex_psionic439]

[With Mittens dead and Mittens Sr. in an ice prison, Adam's able to relax a little--as much as anyone bleeding from the head is able to, anyway.]

I can try, but these things have pretty good about resisting my powers.

[And after taking a second to get psionically focused (concentration 21), he immediately expends that focus while he attempts to read the pack leader's thoughts (concentration 24). Which bumps the will save up to 17 if this bitch is going to resist. The range for this power is sixty feet, so Adam ain't moving any closer either. Fuck barbed tentacles tbh.]

[rituals]

[ adam hears... you know what, i'm not sure what a displacer beast's thoughts sound like. HIDEOUS YOWLING????? but that shit ain't human, that much is for sure.

constantine turns to look between them incredulously, tho. ] You mean to tell me you think this ruddy tom's your junior would-be summoner? [ he swings his gaze towards zatanna, amused disappointment in the tilt of his head ] Zee. You should know better than that. That spell was full-on conjuration, not a whiff of transmutation about it, was there?

[druidisms]

Fucking teenagers.

[ HE IS BLEEDING FROM HIS PRETTY, PRETTY FACE. HE IS SO DONE WITH TEENAGERS, RIGHT NOW. SO DONE.

all teenagers not in this house are dead to him. the only teenager he actually gives a shit about at the moment is the one he crosses the room to find so he can cast cure light wounds on her for a +11 hp. (that would be dawn, fyi. dawn is the only teenager he can stand.)

while he is still bleeding from the face.

god, he really fucking hates teenagers. ] Who the fuck is your friend, Sparky?

1/2

[rituals]

Constantine. [ he can introduce himself, ok. he smirks over at zee as he pulls out a new smoke, since his old one is lying abandoned on the stairs. ] I suppose friend's a word for it. We used to run in the same circles, Zee and I.

[cigam]

I think the word he's searching for here is "ex". [ she gives him a pointed look, although there's nothing really... malicious about it. ] Who, last I knew, was checking himself into an insane asylum. So you can imagine my surprise at finding him in the middle of a mess like this in backwater Kansas, of all places. [ she looks back towards the others ] But he'll have plenty of time to explain that. Is everyone alright? [ concern fills her eyes as she checks out the wounds covering most of them. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[Do we look fucking alright? Like, really. But Adam isn't going to be that blunt right now.]

He's right. [Pointedly ignoring the soap opera bullshit.] It's not human.

[rituals]

'Course I'm right, squire.

Since your human's right upstairs.

[druidisms]

Zee, why don't you and Dawn grab the kid? [ bc gus is liable to set him on fire right about now. ] Adam, Dimitri, get over here so I can heal you. Mellie, stop staring at the guy. [ the guy...can just keep standing there being pretty as far as gus is concerned, constantine's pretty is sure helping the endorphins jump around in his brain. but mellie sits down and licks her wounds.

literally. idk, fucking bears, man. ] We can fire bomb the house when we're through. That'll take care of the bodies, as well. [ sorry, farmers, no funeral for y'all. ] Maybe someone get me a towel first. [ head wounds bleed a lot, gus is tired of it being in his eyes. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[There's a hand towel in the kitchen, so Adam grabs that and heads over (while avoiding the displacer beast still trapped in ice because he doesn't trust that shit not to lash out at a bitch ok). By the time he makes it to Gus he has already used said towel to wipe his own face sorry. But Gus is welcome to it now that he's through. :')]

[druidisms]

[ he takes the towel and just folds it in half with adam's blood on the inside before he mops the blood off his face and then... holds it to the wounds still bleeding. he only has twelve hp left out of fifty, okay, he is on the fucking struggle bus. his other hand reaches out to clamp against adam's shoulder. (cure light wounds + 13 hp) is it nap time yet? no, still need to heal dimitri and zee. maybe constantine if he wants it, idk. gus doesn't give a fuck rn. ]

[ex_psionic439]

[Adam was down to six ok. He was probably stumbling to get across the room idek. But Gus' spell pushes him back up to twenty one, which is nice because he doesn't feel like fucking collapsing anymore. Gus ain't looking too hot himself, though. So Adam is going to go out of his way to ask the obvious.]

What about you? [Aww, see. He really does care. :')]

[druidisms]

I'm fine. I've had worse. [ this is actually true, he has had worse, it's just not making gus less surly when he's in pain rn. he leans his quarterstaff against the wall so he doesn't have to keep attempting to hold it. ] Hell of a headache.

[ maybe he'll rest his head on the ice block. ....nah, better not. ]

1/2

[cigam]

[ zee nods to dawn to follow, and heads towards the stairs, piping up as she puts a hand on the railing ] You still haven't said what you're doing here, John. Both on this farm, and on this side of the pond.

[rituals]

Two way street, that. Didn't exactly hear you leaping to introduce this lot, either. [ it's said with good humor as he glances back down at dawn ] As for me, bit of the usual: right place, right time. [his gaze is drawn through the wooden slats along the steps that afford a view into the grisly kitchen. His expression contorts into a tired grimace. ] Or maybe wrong place and time, depending on who you ask.

[likeagod]

[Dimitri has his own towel as he moves toward the group, wiping blood away as well. He doesn't seem like he's hurting too terribly badly, but he could also be hiding it.]

The assistance was appreciated all the same.

[rituals]

Think that's my line, mate, this time around. Three on one's never been pleasant odds for anyone, 'specially when the three in question have two legs and two tentacles too many. [ he takes a drag, as he turns to look at the one trapped in ice, scowling. ] Couldn't save all of 'em. Best I could hope for was to keep them from making it up those stairs and turning that lad into Fancy Feast.

It was them or him. [ he shrugs, as if this kind of dark dilemma is an unfortunate but inevitable part of his every day experience ] I picked him.

[druidisms]

Most people would. He's kid. [ he claps his hand on dimitri's shoulder as well to imbue him with a surge of mmm healy goodness. (cure moderate wounds +18 hp) ] Displacer beasts... [ he looks at the ice. ] They're not as dumb as that piece of ignorant shit. [ he hates teenagers. ] Cornered, fucking conjured, of course they're going to fight back. But displacer beasts hate and that is all. They kill for pleasure, not just food. They don't learn. That tool will.

[cigam]

[ zee freezes on the steps to look back down between the two of them, one hand moving to her hip ] Like you said yourself, Harrison, that tool is a kid. One who likely just lost his parents because of something he did, which he'll have to live with for the rest of his life. So before I bring him downstairs? How about we dial up the empathy a notch and keep in mind that the situation itself is going to have taught him a lot more than any of us could via lecture.