middleofsomewhere | Final: Purple

It has been a long and exhausting trek through the underwater caverns, even in the rare times they surfaced onto sandbanks they are attacked by creatures from the sea.

But eventually they arrive, one last water filled tunnel and a short climb they arrive in an large dry cave. In the centre there is a marble plinth. On the ground nearby there is a shell bowl, intact luckily but toppled off to the side.

Fighting

More pressing however are the two shark head beasts and uncountable number of crabs in the cavern. It seems, no matter how exhausted the voidtreckers are their fight is not yet over.

Preparing the chamber

Though the chamber doesn't have all that much in it, what there is is in a mess. There has been a concerted effort to wreck the place. Ripped tapestries cover the walls and there are candles, some smashed, some just toppled. The place smells strongly of a mix of different smells as if oils had been poured out, indeed there are empty and smashed bottles around.

At some point during this fight their SCA's glow and through them they may hear some familiar voices. It seems there is more to do than just fight crabs and indeed clearing this mess might not be able to wait until the battle is over!

Clear the chamber and set things to rights! Whilst also fighting off an army of crabs!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“Fucking hell bugger shit fuck fuck!”

Joscelin isn’t doing particularly well against the crabs. They’re massive, almost as big as he is, and there’s only so much that an exhausted and not particularly athletic ten year old can do against such creatures. Any time he manages to tip one onto its back, five more seem to take its place.

He barely manages to avoid an enormous claw and stumbles backwards, tripping over some of the detritus in the cave and landing painfully on his bottom. .

“Fuck!”

"Joss!"

Romeo is not much bigger than him, nor does he have the borderlines that would normally work for ranged fighting or a shield to give him and others a break. But at least he has always been this tiny and weak.

He darts through the crabs to try and get to Joss' side and wacks another crab with his spear. He's exhausted but he knows if they stop the crabs will pincer them to pieces!

Seeing the two small boys struggling, Trowa fought his way toward them. He had a spear in one hand and one of his knives in the other. He ran his knife through the upper shell of one that was about to lunge for Romeo, twisting the blade to pull it back out again. "Do you need better weapons or cover?" The boys looked exhausted, but he wasn't about to judge. And he could spare a knife for each if needed.

Reno wasn't far off when he heard the frustrated cries of the boy, but he was dealing with a particularly large crab at the time and could only spare a glance that way at first. He was relieved, therefore, when he finally took down his monster and turned back to the boy to find others had gathered around to help him.

The Turk almost didn't bother after that but then he realized all three of them were just kids. The older one looked more sturdy, sure, but Reno was probably close to twice his age and--damnit, he had that responsible feeling creeping up on him again. Well, at least Tseng wasn't around to berate him for it.

Reno dashed in with a controlled burst of lightning that crackled around the group and stunned any surrounding crabs that were starting to crawl back up towards the still group of boys. Hopefully he didn't sting any of the kids either. He was used to it but if there were any puddles nearby it made it a little harder to control his electricity when he flung it around like that.

"Yo! You guys done standing around chatting?" he said as he went to pick up the smaller boy on the ground. "Time to move it before they get back up!"

“Fuck off!” Joss shouts at Reno. How are they chatting?

He does, however, allow himself to be lifted out of the water and away from the giant crabs trying to kill him.

“Romeo, get out of there!”

Romeo was glad when Reno grabbed Joss! Because he hadn't been able to get to him at all and he had been so scared! As much as he tries to keep his spirits up he couldn't stop thinking about the last time, when Joss had been killed. He had promised to protect him and he wasn't going to let any of these bad crabs get him!

"Come on sir!" He called to the other man who had jumped in to help them and then jumped after Reno and Joss. The biggest jump he could, which being a shinki was quite big indeed!

Trowa had to say he was impressed by the boy’s jump. He followed the tall man, avoiding the puddles to keep from getting shocked by mistake. He saw a crab heading for the one who had jumped and did a jumping flip of his own, grabbing the crab by the claw and forcing it onto its back. He’d had to drop the spear for it, but that was fine. As soon as the crab was on its back, he cut the thing free, leaving the crab defenseless and unable to right itself. “Try to flip them on their backs and sever the big claw. They can’t get back up that way, so they’re helpless.”

"Whoa! Chill, yo." Reno flicked the kid's ear. Then he grabbed the kid by the waist and got clear of the crabs. He sent Joscelin down next to Romeo once they were all clear.

"Nice work," he told Trowa. Reno was impressed by the older kid's fighting sense. He got the impression the teenager had seen combat before and had experience with a little more than a simple street fight. But the Turk didn't have time to wonder what that was all about.

"All right. You," he pointed at Trowa, "stay here and keep these two safe. You two," he pointed at Romeo and Joscelin. He hesitated the briefest of seconds. "You two get to work on cleaning this mess up, you hear? We need to help the island leaders get this place prepared for their ceremony or ritual or whatever it is they have to do. I'm counting on you guys to get it done, all right?"

Reno wasn't the best at talking to kids but he tried to emulate what he knew and used speech tactics to try and encourage them to listen. He only hoped it worked on the bratty one because Reno knew that kind of attitude--it wasn't far off from his own. If he was lucky he'd get some lip but a reluctant acceptance and the kids would be safe here near the plinth where they could work while the others kept them safe from the crabs.

Joscelin’s pride won’t permit him to thank the vulgar redhead, but he’s grateful to have been saved from the pincers and deposited in a relatively safe spot next to Romeo. Cleaning sounds something far better suited to their skillsets than battling mutant crustaceans, and the faster they can put the chamber back in order, the faster the old folks will perform their ritual and they can get the hell out of there.

Joss nods at both Reno and Trowa. From the defiant set of the boy’s chin it’s fairly obvious that he won’t give them much more acknowledgment than that.

“Fine. We’ll tidy up for you. Just keep the monsters away from us.”

"Thank you for saving Joss sir!" Romeo at least has no misplaced pride when it comes to being grateful and he is really glad that someone was able to help Joss when he wasn't.

He's not good at helping Joss at all, he checks over his friend, to check he hasn't been hurt. "Thank you too sir." He nodded at Trowa, glad he had gotten out of all those crabs!

At the instructions he nodded firmly, "Yes sir! We will make it very clean!"

A ritual sounded very important after all!

Trowa nodded at the order, turning his back to the smaller boys. "Nothing will get past me." His voice was flat and serious, fully intending to make sure he was telling the truth. He had knives at the ready, and was willing to die if he had to.

Final: Purple

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