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

[internetsexsymbol]

"Ok, scratch that. New job, not a new hobby. Mercenary work will only keep you on the fringes of society...do you have any marketable skills for a résumé?" Reigen's tone very quickly shifted to a business mindset. Not that he'd consider hiring Deadpool himself: he already met his quota for employees reformed from criminal lifestyle, and besides, Deadpool would scare the customers.

"My name's Arataka Reigen. The backstory behind it is that's what my parents named me. Please, tell me why they call you Deadpool. Secret codename?" When Deadpool started waving the pants around like a threat, Reigen held a hand out in preparation. "Don't you dare."

[filmnotyetrated]

“Fringes of society works for me, that’s where I thrive. More fun, more guns.” Wade chirped back. “Plus, I’m like super good at two things, and that’s running my mouth and mercin’ some bad guys. I’m specially trained in both of those things, as a matter of fact.”

He waited a moment, pants still held a loft threateningly. “And they call me Deadpool because I lost my friend the dead pool he ran because now I can never die. That’s what he gets for betting on me to die,” he turned away to start digging for more clothes, just dropping the pants on the floor. “That asshole.”

[internetsexsymbol]

"You... what?" Ok, Reigen needed a moment to unpack all of that. Number one, this weird man was a trained assassin. Not the craziest thing Reigen had heard, he knew a lot of people with those kind of skillsets even though he wouldn't call them assassins, so he could put that part to the side as long as Deadpool kept in line here. Reigen didn't want to get involved in the criminal underworld.

Number two, a friend of this guy had bet on him dying. "Well, yeah...that guy sounds like a pretty bad friend to have." As Deadpool put it, what an asshole. This presumably ex-friend deserved to lose his money for trying to profit off a man's death.

Which brought Reigen to Number Three. The masked man said he could never die. "You're joking about the never dying thing, right? How is that even possible? You're not a ghost, and even those can disappear."

[filmnotyetrated]

“Yeah, Weasel’s a piece of shit, but we have a thing so we can dunk on each other, no hard feelings.” Wade shrugged. “He’s got guns and jobs when I need ‘em, so it all works out in the end.” Man all of these clothes were boring, he’d probably just have to settle for being covered rather than looking super badass. Oh well.

“As for the dying, as long as you don’t test it, I’ll tell you.” He picked up a shirt to shake at the blond. “I just heal real fast, and regrow limbs and stuff. It’s real gross, wanna see?” He dropped the weaponized shirt and put a finger in his mouth like he was going to just bite it off or something. “Mm ffctffly mmrtl,” he said, not taking the finger out of his mouth. “Neher tesed th’ limts.”

[internetsexsymbol]

"Of course I'm not gonna test it out. Didn't I say I don't kill people--" Whatever else Reigen was going to say, he quickly forgot when Deadpool was about to bite off his own finger.

"No!! No, I don't wanna see that! Take that finger out right now!" Reigen wasn't entirely sure whether Deadpool was in fact telling the truth, but even if he was, Reigen really didn't need to see someone rip a limb off. "Goddammit, is this what all mercenaries are like?"

[filmnotyetrated]

"'Oo 'ure? Uo're mi'in' ou'." Wade offered before finally taking his finger out of his mouth. "It would have grown back in like a day, it's totally fine. I've lost worse." He hummed to himself, seemingly completely blind to the stress he was causing.

"Now, most mercs aren't mostly immortal and have to heal the slow human way, and don't regrow any limbs. I'm one of a kind. At least, that's what my wife says, but I'm never sure if she's saying that to be sweet, or to be thankful there's only one of me. The world may never know, really."

Looking back at Reigen, he made a face. "You alright back there, you seem stressed?"

[internetsexsymbol]

"Yes I'm sure, dammit! I'm squeamish!" That was a lie, Reigen had never been afraid of blood. He did, however, have an aversion to seeing people's fingers get severed that he liked to call being a reasonable human being. Once that poor finger was finally out of chomping range, a huge wheeze of relief escaped from Reigen's lungs.

"That's...nice." Deadpool's admittedly kind of sweet tidbit about his wife only half registered while Reigen was trying to recover from the near heart attack he just had. When the mercenary actually pointed out how stressed he looked, Reigen, shocked at how oblivious a question that was, could only respond with a flat, "No."

[filmnotyetrated]

"No you're not okay or no you're not stressed? Don't worry, I won't spew any bodily fluids on you unless you ask, scouts honor." Wade actually winked, the motion unfortunately coming across just fine with the mask.

"So like what's your team up to? Hopefully not killing since you're wigging out about one little missing finger. That's not even the worst that's happened." He paused, for dramatic effect. "I could tell you about getting torn in half, or losing the whole arm."

[internetsexsymbol]

Reigen was silent for a while, confused and repulsed by what was... A double-entendre based off of gushing blood from severed limbs? His expression shifted between confusion and disgust before finally settling on exasperation. "...What? Why would I want--that's not--...that's disgusting. Keep your spew away from me." Whatever it was, thanks, Reigen hated it. Time to never acknowledge that Deadpool had said that to him ever again.

"We're supposed to evacuate some people out of the city? So yeah, no fighting, probably." Hopefully, at least, he wasn't exactly a combat guy in general. "...you know, I could ask how that even happens, but I think this is just a part of who you are. Seriously, you ever consider taking up pottery or something?"

[filmnotyetrated]

“Gross, why you gotta call it ‘spew’, Squeamie? That’s the worst way you could have said that!” Wade said, making fake retching noises through the giggles he was trying to hide. “And I thought I was a dirty boy, I was just talkin’ about blood of course.”

He continued giggling to himself, now sifting through the piles on the floor around him. “Thought about it, but since I brought my wife back to life, we can’t go full Ghost on it so, like, what’s even the point? Do you do pottery? Got a ghost boyfriend to help?”

[internetsexsymbol]

"Sh-shut up! You're the one who brought up body fluids, asshole! Don't pin this on me!" Reigen was fuming at being laughed at for the word 'spew' by a man almost twenty years older than him with the sense of humor of a twelve-year-old. This was definitely in at least the top five of embarrassing things that have happened to him.

"I did once in college? I honestly just picked a random relaxing hobby to contrast the hitman thing...what does that have to do with ghost boyfriends?" He had never seen the movie Ghost, since American romance movies weren't exactly his taste.

"I work with a ghost, but..." When the mental image of being in a passionate relationship with that guy went through his head, he grimaced a little. "Yeah, he's not my type."

[filmnotyetrated]

Wade gasped loudly. "I did not, you're the dirty bird that brought it up! I'm completely innocent!" Like, rude much, trying to blame him like that? Psh.

He flinched a little when a ghost was mentioned. "What the hell, man, how did you just make a link with your mouth. You like, downloaded that horrible green thing into my brain. I don't want this, what the hell even is that Slimer looking thing? What do you even do? You a Ghostbuster over there, Egon?"

[internetsexsymbol]

"You are the least innocent person here!" How did they end up arguing over who was the more degenerate between them, really? Reigen had thought the answer would be obvious.

"How did I what?" Reigen looked very confused for a moment. Was Deadpool a telepath (please no, he doesn't want that bastard inside his head), or did Reigen suddenly awaken to new abilities? "Whatever, he's a ghost. I keep him around because he eats evil spirits. So I guess you could say I'm a...'Ghost Buster'? Wait, Egon? Who the hell is that?" Even more movies that Reigen had not seen.

[filmnotyetrated]

"Don't worry about it, Squeamie. Just accept the things I say as really funny jokes, it's what everyone else does. Anyway, can you like, see ghosts and stuff? Are there any ghosts on the train?"

What a weird job to have and sound so.... corporate about. It sounded so cool in theory, but Death probably wouldn't let him hunt down spirits after what happened in some of his comics. Damn you, 2D Deadpool, ruining things for him. Anyway, things were getting a little esoteric in his head here. Back to interacting with other people normally.

"Also, how dare you I am perfectly innocent, the only person more innocent than me on this train are Sunshine and the little pink girl!"

[internetsexsymbol]

"Sure, whatever." Reigen didn't really have the time or patience to get into that whole mess anyway. "Yeah, I can see ghosts, would be pretty hard to do my job if I couldn't. I haven't seen any ghosts around the train though."

What could Reigen say, he was a (mostly) practical man despite his line of work. He wasn't gonna touch on the fact that he'd done the job for years without having ghost-seeing abilities, of course. There was no way he would expose his status as a fraud to freaking Deadpool of all people.

"Do you mean Madoka-chan? That doesn't count, Madoka-chan makes puppies look like war criminals next to her. Don't put her on your scale." He didn't know who 'Sunshine' was yet, but Reigen was willing to bet Deadpool was also not even a blip on the innocence radar compared to that kid.

[filmnotyetrated]

“I mean I wasn’t always immortal, but I was still an assassin, so no shame in faking it.” Nevermind that immortality was certainly not a prerequisite for being a mercenary. That was neither here nor there.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, Pinkie Pie, I don’t know her name but that sounds about right. Shojou-horror shows aren’t really my anime steeze. Anisteeze. Whatever. I could never keep the girls in that one straight.” He waved a hand. “And you’re awful high and mighty for someone thinkin’ about spew, you know that?”

Really, he tried to stop being antagonistic for a moment, but the thought was fleeting and left his head almost immediately. This just sorta happened when he opened his mouth.