Onward: Purple

[voidtreckermods]

The second night of their trek is interrupted by the shaking of the ground. It only lasts a few moments and all the tunnels hold, but it is enough to be a frightening experience.

And it seems to have agitated the monsters. A wave of crabs attack not long after the shaking has stopped, emerging from the rocks around them.

They are close to one of the sandbanks and as they emerge, for a moment out of the caves they will find darkened skies and choppy seas. There is a feeling of a storm approaching. It is cooler then it has been.

But that is the least of their problems. As they cross the sandbank, wading in the water a giant squid attacks. Tentacles reaching out of the sea, to wrap around limbs and pull the voidtreckers and those they are escorting off the sandbank and into the ocean depths.

The tentacles at least seem to withdraw if damaged enough, hopefully they can be fought off before anyone drowns.

Comments

[theturksway]

"I don't wanna know what kinda dates you've been having that remind you of this, yo." Reno said with a wry look shot towards the elf.

[laurefindil]

"Not mine!" Glorfindel protested. "No one gets handsy with me, they're too in awe of me." Which really took the fun out of dating, honestly.

"I've had to break up a few dates though, in my time. Back in Mithlond, the docks could get a little wild!" No actual squid though, unless it were on the menu.

[theturksway]

Reno rolled his eyes as he dodged another flailing tentacle thrash. "Right, right."

Reno's initial train of thought was interrupted by the tentacle again and the Turk cursed as he gave it a strong beating with his nightstick. Flashes of electricity flew with each hit. The tentacle eventually retreated into the water. "I've had worse fights with bigger beasts, yo."

Not that Reno could actually tell how big this one truly was but surely boasting never hurt anyone. Right? Riiight.

Another tentacle curled out of the water to replace the other and Reno sighed with a growl. "Come on! Get out of here already! We're not gonna be your dinner!"

[laurefindil]

"Same, though at least this one isn't on fire," Glorfindel said. He couldn't actually see the squid to actually make the call on the size, but he really felt the lack of fire was the determining factor. At least with the helmets on the tentacles couldn't drag anyone to their deaths by their hair.

"How are you doing that? With the lightning?" he asked. He nodded firmly in agreement with Reno's statement about not being dinner.

[theturksway]

"Monsters on fire do tend to be troublesome," Reno replied conversationally. "And ice ones ain't much better. Though I think my least favorite would have to be poisonous creatures. Especially highly poisonous monsters with tentacles and foul breath." Reno shuddered at the thought, a Malboro coming to mind. Nasty creatures. "Thank the Lifestream this is just a water creature. This? This is nothing."

Reno held out his left hand with the palm up, the baton balanced carefully in a loose grip to show off the stick. He pressed the trigger and a spark of electricity arched across the top end. "Finest Shinra tech, yo. I go for the best and ain't no one gonna say no to a Turk."

[laurefindil]

"Poison creatures with tentacles and foul breath?" Glorfindel asked, impressed. "There was no chance they'd ever end up on the side of good, was there?" he added with a laugh.

"Balrogs are definitely the worst on my world. Though the Ring Wraths and fire drakes are also quite the handful." It had been a fire drake that had killed most of his House back in Gondolin. "I agree, this is more the level of a cave troll." He slashed at another appendage. "With tentacles!"

Glorfindel nodded. "I accept that. But it begs the questions, what is Shinra, and what is a Turk?"

[Glorfindel asks the easy questions in the middle of combat, don'tcha know?]

[theturksway]

"I find that monsters don't tend to give a shit about 'good' or 'evil'. They just attack for the sake of it." Which was true enough in his world. Most creatures that were referred to as monsters in his world were violent towards anything that moved.

"Yeah, whatever the hell this thing is it's more annoying than deadly at the moment. Guess we should just be grateful--but fuck that!"

Reno dashed around another tentacle to get to a fallen islander. He fended off the tentacle before reaching down and helping the elder up. He wasn't exactly gentle but he meant well at least. He hurried the guy along with rushed words and a shove that was a little harder than intended.

He returned to Glorfindel's area once the elder was safely along the path. It was almost time to skip out and keep heading through the tunnels, hopefully. If they could just get the rest of the islanders past without getting hit by the massive tentacles.

"Shinra is a company back in my world that's pretty powerful." At least it was, but Reno hoped it would be again one day. "The company specialized in electricity sourcing and weapons technology." That was the short version anyway. "A Turk is a special agent that works for Shinra. We're the best at what we do and we always complete our missions, no matter what."

[laurefindil]

"In the case of the goblins and cave trolls, I agree, though honestly, it is the smarter ones that put them in the paths so the ones they attack are the innocent, usually."

Glorfindel nodded at Reno's action. The redhead was a good person. He made sure the tentacle stayed fended off while Reno was busy with the elder. Most everyone was through, just a few more.

"That sounds pretty impressive," he said. "Not everyone gets to be the best, and completing your missions is an amazing feat."

[theturksway]

"No, I mean all monsters. As in, beasts that are either highly aggressive for unknown reasons or highly volatile due to mako exposure. The latter of which are usually mutated."

Reno was less 'a good person' in his own mind and more 'highly efficient'. He didn't so much as care about the elder as he wanted to finish the mission. That's what Turks did after all, they completed their mission no matter what. And since this was an escort mission that was what he had to do: protect the people on this trip.

"Yeah, I know."

[laurefindil]

"Ah. That is an understandable distinction." Glorfindel looks at him. "What is mako?" He hopes his questions don't get too annoying.

"On my world, it is the power of the Dark Lord Melkor that did the mutating."

[theturksway]

Maybe a little annoying because they were in the middle of defending themselves and others, but at least it kept him focused. "Mako is the Lifestream in physical form. It's what Shinra discovered could be used as a convenient energy source. Too much contact with it corrupts what it touches though."

Reno spared a glance in Glor's direction. "Who's this Dark Lord Melkor person?" And why does it sound like it's related to Jenova.

[laurefindil]

"Interesting. On my world, it is the Song that serves that function," Glorfindel said, hoping he interpreted what the Lifestream was correctly.

He is used to centuries of fighting orcs. You are quiet when you sneak up on them, but once battle is engaged, you don't have to be so careful. "But it does not have a physical form, as such."

"Melkor is...the discordant note in the Song," Glorfindel said. "He was one of the Ainur, some of whom became the Valar, but he disagreed with the harmony and brought chaos and destruction to Arda."

[theturksway]

"Song? The heck?" Reno dodged the tentacle again and glanced behind him. "Yo! Let's go," he called out to Glorfindel as he watched the last few people slip past the area and back into the next cave.

Reno took the initiative then and struck out with a large bolt of electricity at the remaining tentacles, causing them to flinch back briefly. Then he scampered off for the cave himself.

Once Glorfindel joined him, Reno had more questions for the elf. "Okay now that that's over... what do you mean by 'song'? Is it like a spell or something?"

It was the only thing Reno could think of that would make sense. He also had other questions, like what was an Ainur or Valar and was Arda the name of Glor's world, and more. First things first though the other things had some context for being names of things, but the concept of a song being an energy source or the cause of mutation didn't really make sense for him.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel was right on Reno's heels. His own abilities were not as easily focused as that handy lightning stick of the other's. He wondered again if there was some way of doing that. He would definitely have to ask Feanor after the mission.

"No, no. The world, my world, was sung into being by Iluvatar and the Ainur." Actually... "Come to think of it, it does sound a lot like a spell, doesn't it? But through it, the World, the sky, the sea, the elves, all came to be. Not all at once, of course."

[theturksway]

Okay now Reno thought the guy was bullshitting him. There was no way some
people sung a song and created a whole world. Right? It had to be some sort of allegory. Yeah, okay, Reno could get behind that. Maybe it was some long project they built. Like Midgar, but maybe larger scale. Which was hard to imagine but hey. So was a train that traveled the...multiverse?...and tried to help people.

"Of course," Reno said blandly as if it wasn't a big deal at all. He focused on the walk ahead of them and didn't ask another question. He shook his head instead.

[laurefindil]

He could tell Reno didn't believe him, though he wasn't sure why. There were a lot of different worlds apparently, and a lot of different origin stories. Surely his world's wasn't any stranger than any of the others. "You could ask one of the others when we get back, like Nerdanel or Curufin. I wouldn't recommend Feanor though. He has...opinions on the Valar." Which was an understatement. But then the Valar had opinions on Feanor, so Glorfindel figured it was only fair.