RE: [IC][Story] Channeling Mana
04-01-2021, 05:03 AM (This post was last modified: 04-01-2021, 05:04 AM by Labster.)
04-01-2021, 05:03 AM (This post was last modified: 04-01-2021, 05:04 AM by Labster.)
Chapter 5
Hunting the Wumpus
Mulholland Drive, West Hollywood Hills
November 9, 2016, 2:45 PM
One moment it was stalking through a verdant forest a klick outside the walls of a city, and in the next, it was waking up on the warm pavement in the hills above an entirely different city.
The beast was roused by the sounds of armed men in black uniforms trying to encircle it. The men were wary, not afraid; the beast felt very weak. But not so weak that it couldn't teach these humans a lesson. It stood up, stiffened its pitch black body, and voiced a horrendous roar, terrifying folks halfway to Coldwater Canyon.
Los Angeles County Animal Control, Venice Branch
4:31 PM
A man in a dark green coverall warily eyed the creature behind the steel bars of the compound's largest cage. "That thing freaks me out. It's like it knows I'm afraid. It wants me to be afraid."
"You'd be more freaked out if you were on duty this afternoon. I think we must have shot it like a hundred times, and it's still alive. It's a miracle we managed to capture it." The animal control officer's uniform looked worse for the wear today, ground in the dirt, with a couple rips across the sleeves.
"Yeah... but what the hell is it? Doesn't look like any bear I've ever seen."
"Fuck if I know. We've got some professor-types coming by to look at it in the morning."
The beast actually didn't look much like a bear at all, except in size -- a dire wolf would have made a more apt comparison. Its body was covered in jet black fur from head to tail, with white claws and horns protruding from its joints. The most disturbing part had to be the face, almost like an exposed skull with two red veins traced across the top and deep crimson eyes, which stalked them around the yard.
The animal shelter employee decided it was probably for the best to avert his gaze. "Do you think Nguyen's gonna pull through?"
"God, I hope so. What that beast did to him, was awful."
Mulholland Drive
4:44
All was quiet, back to normal, among the million-dollar homes which were nestled into the steep hills and winding roads of the Hollywood Hills. There had been some reports of a bear on the loose -- perhaps UCLA's mascot bruin himself -- as one resident joked to his mistress. But that had all been dealt with.
So no one noticed when a vortex of black energy expanded to about the size of a garage door, allowing three people to step into a steep hillside barranca.
The obvious leader of this group was a pale-skinned young woman with a dashing black cape unfurled off to her right side. She had a short haircut, similarly asymmetric, covering the right side of her face under dark ashen hair. She looked to be about college age, but definitely could still pass as a high school student.
A girl in a crop top with mint green hair asked her a question, "So this is where the dimensional crossover happened? It looks pretty peaceful."
Cinder Fall answered, "Somewhere around here, Emerald. It couldn't have gotten too far, grimm seem to cross into this universe very weak." Grasping the arm buried under her cape with her left hand, she explained, "People don't know to fear them yet. Thankfully, I have friends like you two around."
"Uh, yeah." Emerald Sustrai assented, not knowing how to respond to that.
"Let's spread out and look for any disturbance. And do try not to kill it." She could trust them to follow the order. Tyrian, however, had been specifically disinvited from the retrieval mission. He was formidable and clever, to be sure, but the kind of person who had a tendency to take things too far.
Instead, Cinder relied on her own gang. What they lacked in understanding, they made up in being able to stick to a plan. The young man in her group, a slender silver-haired man in gray slacks named Mercury Black, remarked, "Right. Let's go!" He hopped up the side of the barranca while Emerald ran down towards the street.
In the next hour, they searched high and low for any evidence of a grimm in the area, and found no creature scarier than a spider. They briefly found a trail through the brush of a large creature, but this too proved to dead end onto a concrete driveway.
Coming up empty handed, they had to resort to asking the residents about it, but this was easier said than done. The houses lay far behind gates, the landscaping help had finished for the day, and many homes were simply vacant while the residents enjoyed their second, third, or fourth homes elsewhere. They eventually resorted to flagging down a few cars and just asking the occupants.
The approach was scattershot, but ultimately effective. The woman in third vehicle told them that the local authorities had caught the animal earlier so they didn't have anything to be afraid of now. She even agreed to loan them her hunter green SUV, in exchange for a length of rope behind her back and not being stabbed by Emerald. All in all, she was very helpful.
Hunting the Wumpus
Mulholland Drive, West Hollywood Hills
November 9, 2016, 2:45 PM
One moment it was stalking through a verdant forest a klick outside the walls of a city, and in the next, it was waking up on the warm pavement in the hills above an entirely different city.
The beast was roused by the sounds of armed men in black uniforms trying to encircle it. The men were wary, not afraid; the beast felt very weak. But not so weak that it couldn't teach these humans a lesson. It stood up, stiffened its pitch black body, and voiced a horrendous roar, terrifying folks halfway to Coldwater Canyon.
Los Angeles County Animal Control, Venice Branch
4:31 PM
A man in a dark green coverall warily eyed the creature behind the steel bars of the compound's largest cage. "That thing freaks me out. It's like it knows I'm afraid. It wants me to be afraid."
"You'd be more freaked out if you were on duty this afternoon. I think we must have shot it like a hundred times, and it's still alive. It's a miracle we managed to capture it." The animal control officer's uniform looked worse for the wear today, ground in the dirt, with a couple rips across the sleeves.
"Yeah... but what the hell is it? Doesn't look like any bear I've ever seen."
"Fuck if I know. We've got some professor-types coming by to look at it in the morning."
The beast actually didn't look much like a bear at all, except in size -- a dire wolf would have made a more apt comparison. Its body was covered in jet black fur from head to tail, with white claws and horns protruding from its joints. The most disturbing part had to be the face, almost like an exposed skull with two red veins traced across the top and deep crimson eyes, which stalked them around the yard.
The animal shelter employee decided it was probably for the best to avert his gaze. "Do you think Nguyen's gonna pull through?"
"God, I hope so. What that beast did to him, was awful."
Mulholland Drive
4:44
All was quiet, back to normal, among the million-dollar homes which were nestled into the steep hills and winding roads of the Hollywood Hills. There had been some reports of a bear on the loose -- perhaps UCLA's mascot bruin himself -- as one resident joked to his mistress. But that had all been dealt with.
So no one noticed when a vortex of black energy expanded to about the size of a garage door, allowing three people to step into a steep hillside barranca.
The obvious leader of this group was a pale-skinned young woman with a dashing black cape unfurled off to her right side. She had a short haircut, similarly asymmetric, covering the right side of her face under dark ashen hair. She looked to be about college age, but definitely could still pass as a high school student.
A girl in a crop top with mint green hair asked her a question, "So this is where the dimensional crossover happened? It looks pretty peaceful."
Cinder Fall answered, "Somewhere around here, Emerald. It couldn't have gotten too far, grimm seem to cross into this universe very weak." Grasping the arm buried under her cape with her left hand, she explained, "People don't know to fear them yet. Thankfully, I have friends like you two around."
"Uh, yeah." Emerald Sustrai assented, not knowing how to respond to that.
"Let's spread out and look for any disturbance. And do try not to kill it." She could trust them to follow the order. Tyrian, however, had been specifically disinvited from the retrieval mission. He was formidable and clever, to be sure, but the kind of person who had a tendency to take things too far.
Instead, Cinder relied on her own gang. What they lacked in understanding, they made up in being able to stick to a plan. The young man in her group, a slender silver-haired man in gray slacks named Mercury Black, remarked, "Right. Let's go!" He hopped up the side of the barranca while Emerald ran down towards the street.
In the next hour, they searched high and low for any evidence of a grimm in the area, and found no creature scarier than a spider. They briefly found a trail through the brush of a large creature, but this too proved to dead end onto a concrete driveway.
Coming up empty handed, they had to resort to asking the residents about it, but this was easier said than done. The houses lay far behind gates, the landscaping help had finished for the day, and many homes were simply vacant while the residents enjoyed their second, third, or fourth homes elsewhere. They eventually resorted to flagging down a few cars and just asking the occupants.
The approach was scattershot, but ultimately effective. The woman in third vehicle told them that the local authorities had caught the animal earlier so they didn't have anything to be afraid of now. She even agreed to loan them her hunter green SUV, in exchange for a length of rope behind her back and not being stabbed by Emerald. All in all, she was very helpful.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto