A City Falls: Start

[voidtreckermods]

Preparation

Just after light on the seventh day of the month of Bassoon everyone’s SCA glows with the colour of the void before showing a message. A briefing for the mission to come.

Anyone who goes to investigate the dressing carriage will find all the cupboards and drawers open. They may need to battle through spider webs but soon will find an array of clothes. Trousers, skirts, dresses, shirts, robes, cloaks. Everything they will need and plenty of choice. All the clothes have accents of team colours in more muted hues than the normal bold hoodies they wear.

A few hours later there is an announcement over the speakers. "Arrival to Planet #25768 imminent. Prepare for exit from Void. Drop order: Purple, Orange, Red, Blue. All passengers are to wear their Safety Control Apparatus and are reminded that emergency evacuation protocol is three short taps."

The train shudders and jerks. It is time.

Purple

"Purple Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Purple team to doors."

The train flies down through the air before coming to a stop between two rocky outcrops. The doors hiss open, it’s a bit of a jump down to the ground and anyone who looks back will find the train hard to see. Not invisible but definitely cloaked, shifting to blend in with the rock.

They can hear the sound of many footsteps and the high sound of young voices. It is easy to hear where they need to be.

As they move down the rocky slope they will see the main pass. A large group of children are walking. Spirits are high even if it is clear they are on their guard. Older teens are wearing weapons, swords, the odd axe, a few daggers. Nothing expertly crafted but they all wear them with ease. Slightly younger children carry the very young, toddlers and those too young to walk and keep pace.

There’s a sound from in front of the group. From around the corner a girl, about thirteen years old, runs towards them. Her braids bounce against her shoulders, her eyes are wide with fear and she waves her hands at the others. “Run! Run!”

A shadow looms behind her, a winged wolf, gaining speed towards her. Sat on the wolf is a spear wielding goblin.

From all around them a growling of many more wolves, in the hills, close and ready to pounce.

Orange

Once Purple Team are gone the train flies again. "Orange Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Orange Team to doors."

The train seems to be still concealed as it hovers at the city walls. There’s a bit of a jump onto the walls but at least they are near one of the staircases down into the city.

Also luckily no one seems to have seen them appearing out of no where though that has more to do with the general chaos rather than anything else!

There is a lot of chaos! People evacuating, animals everywhere, people looking lost and bewildered. Get herding or helping and encourage people up that cliff path!

Red

The train flies onward. "Red team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Red team to doors."

The train makes a slightly bumpy landing on a rocky slope. Scrambling up the slope red team will see a group of fighters, perhaps eighty in total. There are some supplies to the side, not yet allotted. Some horses and weapons. All the fighters are currently focused on a tall woman who is on horseback, facing them from the front.

“… Say those that stand here, as few as we may be were the ones who end the goblin menace on our lands for good. For our children and our families. We fight!”

The end of what was clearly a rousing speech, the fighters cheer. They begin to move over the slope, towards the goblin camp below. If you are joining this battle the time is now!

Blue

The train flies low, skimming over the lake. "Blue Team to doors. Drop in one minute. Blue Team to doors."

Jumping down off the train they will land in the shallows of the lake. It’s not deep enough to go over their boots and now too far to wade to shore. The shore is rocky, loose rocks and pools of water to avoid. The tower stands before them. Three goblins, riding wolves perch on the walls high above them. The sky above crackles with lightning that is not at all natural.

The doorway to the tower is open, there are a lot of stairs to get up. The howls of the wolves fill the air as the wizards fight them off above. Time to climb!

Comments

Purple

[thebiggestguy]

Preparation

Dread finally had an outfit that suited him better than the ordinary garb they'd been wearing since arriving here! This one took the form of a coat, with long tails and not much in the way of a shirt beneath its open front. Just like home... if purple. Whoops. But hey, otherwise he looked good in it!

Now how HAD he managed to get it looking just the way he wanted? The answer might shock you! Because those who came in after him would find the massive Roegadyn... hard at work with a needle, stitching up a hem as if he'd been born to the work.

"If you have something for me to work on, just let me know," he said, twitching his head at his to-do pile without moving his eyes away from the task at hand.

Purple: Descent

Well. Here we go.

"All right, everyone." The runes on the back of his gloves lit up white-gold as he balled his hands into fists, his muscles tensing all over as he began to open his chakras. "If anyone has any doubts or plans, we have about ten seconds for them. We need to get in there now."

For a guy his size, he could move pretty fast when he wanted. One blink and he was already charging, light and a faint hint of flames trailing from his fists.

Purple: Battle

The real surprising things about Dread was not how hard he hit, but how fluidly he moved. Every punch and kick he threw into the mix flowed together perfectly, almost more like a dance than a brawl -- to the point where some of his moves took the forms of leaping kicks that brought him to the ground, only for him to roll neatly on his shoulders and land another kick on the way back up before his foe could even think to capitalize on his fallen position.

Sensing the trouble, a large number of goblins had pointed their wolf mounts his way, hoping to pull down and shred this point of resistance before he could take out too many more of them. So as the battle flowed, Dread had more opponents coming his way. How long could he hold out?

battle

[siriusly]

A sizable pack of goblins were coming all at once, with hopes of overwhelming the large warrior with sheer numbers, but not all of them make their way up. There's a distinct TSEWW sound and some bright pulses of light as Manabu, takes point on a thick, mossy tree, aiming and firing through the foliage at the sight of white, scraggly hair coming out to do more harm.

One, two...four...six... Manabu bites his lip, squinting hard to keep focus and track movements without risking hitting Dread. Of course, he'd not called out his positioning once he'd found it, so when his comrade was busy flinging little goblins this way and that with his blows--

"GYAH-!!"

--One inevitably sails his way, knocking him off his perch and into the bog with a splat.

[thebiggestguy]

Oh, wonderful. Dread turned, then lunged forward, slamming his shoulder hard into a goblin that was right about to get too close to Manabu for anyone's comfort. "You okay?"

[siriusly]

He at least landed on his back, so he didn't wind up eating swamp mud. Still, it's not a fine affair to be stuck wrist- and ankle-deep in the stuff. He flinches at the crunching sound he hears come from that goblin upon Dread-impact. Yikes.

"I'm--eugh. Fine, just..."

He stops cold, paling. Wait.

"The pistol--" He yanks his hand free of the mud. Empty. "Oh, no. Where is it!?"

[thebiggestguy]

"Is it in the mud, or did you drop it when you fell?" Dread turned to put himself in between Manabu and more goblins, voice loud enough to be heard even over the noise and the chaos.

[siriusly]

This is the worst time to be losing precious heirlooms-slash-weapons. Manabu's already shoved his hands back in the muck, trying to force his arms around to feel for it even as Dread suggested it. He flinches at the loud sound of impact as the taller man intercepts another hostile, knowing he can't just spend his whole time playing lost-and-found without putting people at risk. But he needs that gun. He has to find it!

In the midst of his desperate searching, his peripheral catches the glint of something that he hopes is what he's lost, but instead looks up and sees a spearhead and a goblin attached, trying to flank them.

"Dread! Behind!"

[thebiggestguy]

Dread assumed that meant 'in the mud', which was not convenient in the slightest. Spinning, he turned to lunge into the goblin, narrowly dodging the spear as he closed the gap to land a flurry of punches on the creature. "You have any resources?" he called over his shoulder.

[siriusly]

"Uh, like what?!" he calls back, hunched over to avoid being caught in the crossfire. "Besides the gun and the bag of stuff, you mean? No, I--"

Ah! This! He grabs hold of something that is either a stick or a gun, and prays it's the latter while yanking it free.

Gun!

The effort it took to get it has him tilted back in such a way to see past Dread at other incoming hostiles, and it means he has a chance to tilt the gun and take down one that was wide open.

[thebiggestguy]

"Oh, problem solved!"

Whew! Satisfied that Manabu had things back under control again, at least on his end, Dread turned his full attention to kicking the crap out of the goblins. He might not have a weapon besides his feet and fists, but those were more than enough to lay out another couple.

preparation

[happyends]

See, the sewing thing isn't a huge surprise to Madoka. Because she definitely remembers the time she spoke to him on that day she arrived, and she already learned back then that despite his huge and pretty intimidating appearance, he's actually really nice and helpful. So being able to sew? Yup, that seems to fit right in with that impression.

Instead it just seems to be the question that surprises her, making her eyes grow a little wider. "Huh? Ah.. n-no, it's alright, I'm sure you already have a lot to do, and we might not have much time..!"

[thebiggestguy]

Dread shook his head, smiling, even as his fingers continued as if on autopilot. "Not at all. This is easy for me, I've had more practice than you can imagine. Besides, clothing is its own kind of armor. An outfit that feels like you can boost your confidence and determination."

[happyends]

Her expression shifts just very slightly - from mostly surprised to instead kind of amazed. Even though he's clearly just saying what he thinks, it's pretty much along the same lines Madoka was thinking. Maybe she'd feel a little better about all of this once she finds a suitable outfit for this...

"I.. I see, you seem very wise.." As she says it, she slowly glances between Dread and the clothing still hanging there. "If it's really not a bother, I could probably use a little bit of help.. A lot of the things here are too big for me."

[thebiggestguy]

"That's easy enough to fix." After all, he'd made and adjusted clothing for Lalafell. Madoka won't be a challenge. "Let's find something that suits you and I'll take it in."

[happyends]

She nods before turning to look at the clothing available. It feels like there's a lot more choice now she knows that he can adjust it to fit her relatively small frame. Almost overwhelming so, really, but Madoka still looks through all the clothes as well as she can.

And while she's still looking, she speaks up again.

"Um.. Have you ever heard of magical girls..?"

[thebiggestguy]

The obvious answer was yes; he knew plenty of girls who could use magic. But something in the term made him think she didn't mean that, so he glanced up from his work again.

"I don't think so. Not the way you mean it."

[happyends]

"They're like.." She stops a little, still looking through the clothes but seemingly having to think for a moment about how to explain it.

"They're girls like me, except they have magical powers and use those to fight monsters.. I saw a lot of cartoons with them on TV." She quickly adds that last part, since she's still not sure how much she should talk about her own involvement with them. It's not like it's a lie anyway, since those cartoons really do exist. "But they always look so cute and pretty doing it, with pink clothes and cute ribbons.. I thought that if I'd look like them during the mission, maybe I'd feel a little more confident."

[thebiggestguy]

This was a random enough thing for her to bring up that Dread nursed a seed of suspicion, but he didn't voice it or let it show.

"I can do that," he said. "Do you want to pick out a base, or should I grab something to work with?"

[happyends]

What's wrong, Dread, can't little girls pick cutesy pink girls in dresses shooting around hearts as their attack as a role model!!

(Okay, no, it's definitely a little suspicious, but Madoka has never been good at lying or being particularly subtle.)

"Um.. What about this colour..?" She pulls out a pink and blue thing that kind of looks like a mage's robe. Still way too wide for her though.

[thebiggestguy]

Dread nodded. "It won't be a lot of good for moving fast, but I can fit it better to fix that some." Making it into some sort of uniform would be interesting, but within his power. It seemed a bit heavy all told, but if she thought it would work...

He held out his hand for it.

[happyends]

She hands it over to him, although she seems a little lost in thought about what he just said. It's true that it'd be a little hard to run in that, huh.. So Madoka ends up looking a little apologetic.

"Sorry.. I'm just more used to wearing skirts, so this felt like the closest thing.." Not to mention it's the most magical girl-y thing here.

[thebiggestguy]

"That's easy enough to handle. I'll convert it."

He squinted at her, then held up one thumb to compare her to for the sake of proportion. Once he had a good idea of what would fit her, he snapped the robe open and quickly began to drop stitches into it.

[happyends]

Madoka is watching him do it with absolute fascination. She's never really been much of the sewing type herself, but watching someone else do it is pretty amazing to her. Especially when she considers the fact he could make something completely different out of that piece of clothing.

She doesn't even dare to speak in case she'd be breaking his concentration or anything - she has her hands pressed to her mouth, eyes wide as she watches him work.

[thebiggestguy]

Dread worked away in silence for a moment... before it started to get to him. He was used to the noise and bustle of the marketplace, the sound of conversation and other people working.

"It's not going to break," he said with a low chuckle.

[happyends]

The (gentle) callout immediately makes Madoka's cheeks grow the same shade as her hair. Not that having been quiet to try and let someone concentrate is something to feel embarrassed about at all, but this is Madoka we're talking about. She gets easily embarrassed about anything.

It's even evident in her voice as she speaks up. "Sorry.. I just didn't want to bother you while you were working on it! It seems like such a hard thing to do.."

Or maybe that has more to do with her own lack of experience with it, huh.

[thebiggestguy]

"I'm pretty good at this. And more importantly, used to working with some noise around." He smiled, to show he didn't mean any criticism by it. "The marketplace tends to be where a lot of crafters work, so it gets really loud."