INTO THE WOODS ※ GAME EVENT

[wildestmods]

INTO THE WOODS

The faerie faire goes on into the evening, the faire filled with the sounds of revelry. For those who've spent the day there, the cool evening air is welcome respite from the bright sun that's shined all day. Those who still have some faerie gold might even want to invest in a cloak if they haven't gotten one yet, because it may get chillier as night falls.

As evening descends and various floating flowers start to glow to provide light, the spring faeries start to bring out night-time merchandise and amusements, like brightly-colored phosphorescent flower jewelry. Fireflies are charmed to blink in different colors and magical fireworks paint the sky in vibrant light. They're quieter than normal fireworks, but there are still satisfying snaps and hisses.

It seems like it'll be a pleasant night at the fair and those only just arriving in the evening will find a charming scene opening up before them.

But one thing that isn't noticed as evening begins to fall is the way the winter faeries suddenly slink away into the rising dark. Or at least it isn't noticed until it's too late. Some of the summer faeries start to react to it with alarm.

"Where did they go? The winter faeries are supposed to provide security, they signed an agreement. Go tell Ponto and get some faeries with warding magic to shore up the wards." Faeries start flying with purpose to speak to others that need to be put on security. "We can handle it ourselves but we need to get enough people out to the borders."

"Should we disperse the faire?"

"No, there's no sign of any threats and if we re-ward it, they'll be safer here than people scattering in the woods at night. Even if we had the bad luck to be attacked before the wards are re-done we can defend them with our magic - and we're contracted to."

Unfortunately that bad luck hits too soon. While the faeries scramble to re-do the defense wards, an unearthly fog rolls in. Terrible screeches start to rend the air, sounding similar to the screams of foxes. Warning bells ring from warning wards placed in certain areas of the woods.

"Nightrenders!" someone calls out and people in the crowd start screaming, gathering their loved ones closer. Horrifying beings start to pour into the faire and the hand stamps of all the people who bought tickets ahead of time start to glow. Faeries rally around those people, casting powerful defensive spells. Due to the panic, several stalls start to go up in flames due to knocked over cooking fires. Fortunately the stalls are small enough for people to escape them easily and spread far enough apart that they can be avoided, but smoke joins the fog in the air.

If a faerie sees one of the squad of otherworlders, and their lack of glowing hand stamp they're quick to offer a warning. "You have to run! The people who bought tickets ahead of time entered into a magical agreement of protection. The warding takes time to charge. We can do nothing for you, without slow-charge wards we're not powerful enough to protect you. The Nightrenders will devour your brain, or your soul."

Apparently that little disclaimer about not being fully protected that some of them read while coming in (for those that had arrived earlier in the day) was more important than it seemed.

The faeries always point the same way, still trying to help the people without tickets. "To the north! There's a place in a canyon with a large, glowing crystal. It looks like an abandoned market and dwellings. You'll be safe there, the magic of the Heartstone will protect you."

USEFUL LINKS

Setting Background/FAQ | Major NPCs


NIGHTRENDERS

The beings known as Nightrenders start amassing on the faire. Their movements are quick but clumsy, as if every one of their movements is made up of a hundred janky, smaller fits and starts, like they're made of clockwork. The faerie magic summer faeries use seems to do no more than stagger them back or temporarily knock them over, but at least makes it clear to the squad that they at least can be knocked over and slowed down. At the very least it seems to take them some time to get off the ground and back to their feet.

Attacks

They attack anyone they see in different ways. Some they wound with massive claws. Or they squeeze someone's torso and nearly suffocate them to give them a chance at possibly chomping into the heads of their victims to get at the brains. Most dangerously of all, they breathe in with a loud sucking noise, clawed hands guiding the magic that lets them drawn out someone's soul to devour it. It looks like a small delicate thing, sometimes in the form of a glittering star or a flower, as its drawn out of the victim's mouth.

This process can fortunately be interrupted if the Nightrender is attacked. As long as the soul hasn't been sucked into their mouths, it goes back into the victim.

Cursed Aura

But the whole thing is complicated by the magical aura caused by the Nightrenders. When they draw close, everyone around them is choked with fear, grief, and dread. Some succumb to visions of their worse memories playing out in their heads over and over. Some might be able to still stagger away in this state, trying to see through the visions, especially if someone helps them along, but others will find it nearly impossible to do anything other than curl on the ground. It is unknown why some don't have the flashbacks or can power through them more than others, though it's thought that those that repress their bad memories or negative emotions struggle more.

Anyone that helps someone who's having visions may get a glimpse of their memories - and empathically feel a flash of the pain, fear, rage, or grief they felt during the memory. If two people try to help each other move forward when both are having visions, they may transmit glimpses back and forth.

Weaknesses

The Nightrenders cannot be destroyed, only knocked down, or slowed down. However, those with "holy" weapons, spells, or powers, or those who have weapons, spells, or powers that can hurt "ethereal" beings or evil spirits will find they can cause them enough pain that sometimes they run away. Spells and abilities that create magical manifestations of good will and happiness, as well as spells of light, or purification can also harm them and drive them away.

THE SISTERS

The Nightrenders don't speak, but some have the misfortune of hearing two voices echo out of the fog. The come in stereo, only just slightly out of sync.

"Chosen Ones, you must be so confused. You've become lost in the forest, and the Dark Lord's nightmares already pursue you. Fortunately for you, our mistress desires your company. You'll adore obeying her will. Don't run, embrace a better destiny."

Two woman in white masks and straw hats, with cloaks made from the feathers of ravens, come out of the fog, body language almost identical. No eyes can be seen through the eyeholes of their masks, just darkness.

They start attacking, and when they beset their victims they stop speaking, refusing to talk or answer questions, instead filling the air with wild, mocking laughter. One wields twin katanas, the other a kusarigama with a painful claw at the end of the chain that closes down when it hits something.

Nets

While they're extremely willing to injure the squad they seem to be trying to capture them instead of killing (albeit capturing them after they're maimed), occasionally tossing out nets of glowing silver of moonlight. Being caught in the nets renders someone paralyzed and weak, a deep cold settling into the marrow of their bones. Some may even hear the shrieks of dying loved ones, whether they've actually died in reality or not. The Sisters apparently have the strength to carry even the largest of the squad in the air and will attempt to fly away when someone is ensnared.

The nets are difficult to destroy, but can be with great force of some kind. It has to be aimed at the part closest to the Sisters' hands, because the force required to break the nets would also injure those trapped inside them. The cold and paralysis fades when the victims are free, but some of the rescued may feel weak and need help staying on their feet. Unfortunately, even when they're broken, the nets of moonlight seem to be something they can recreate within several minutes.

Smoke Monsters

For some, they don't attack directly. Instead, one of the sisters pulls out a pipe and smoke monsters pour out of it. They try to drag their victims closer to the sisters so they can be caught in their nets. Fortunately, they can be destroyed with enough force.

While the Sisters seem impossible to injure, they can at least be caused pain with extreme enough attacks, something that makes them teleport away before risking any further injury.

PROMPTS

a) RENT
Uh oh, a Nightrender has you. Either it's squeezing you so hard you're suffocating and about to chomp into some juicy brains, or it's in the process of sucking your soul out through your mouth. In either case, you're likely broadcasting visions of your worst memories in small flashes to whoever is near. You're in desperate need of rescue and the summer faeries can't help - their magic is all but useless on the Nightrenders if it didn't have time to build by a covenant. Only others that fell into the Wilderlands like you did can save you.

(Feel free to provide multiple memory options ala a memshare, but keep in mind they'd only be flashes instead of a full memory!)

b) NABBED
The Sisters have got you, their smoke monsters are trying to drag you away, or you're still trying to fight them to avoid being caught. It'll be a lot easier if you have help - otherwise you're outnumbered and possibly outclassed. The only way to stop them is fight back hard enough that they feel you're not worth the effort and teleport off.

c) RESCUE
Perhaps you're not affected by the Nightrenders or are just good at powering through the haze of painful magic they're inflicting on the area. Either way, you're out to help the people around you. Perhaps you run into another member of the otherworlder squad that needs saving - or maybe they join you to protect a third otherworlder, or a denizen of the Wilderlands that also forewent a ticket and is therefore at risk. Unlike many of the people from other universes, many of the denizens of the Wilderlands are powerless and thought they were in for a day and night of safe fun.

There are also other hazards to rescue people from. Maybe a small child has been separated from their parents and is disoriented by smoke, in need of rescued from some flaming tents. Or maybe an elderly person has fallen and is at risk of being trampled. There are lots of reasons people might need help, due to fires, panicked horses, collapsing tents, and panicking crowds.

d) RUN
It's time to run! Perhaps, after some screaming and confusion - and teleportation - you finally grab a buddy and bolt through the woods. You better run fast because the Nightrenders and the Sisters may give up chase at some point but it may take time and moving through difficult terrain in the fog to lose them. Perhaps you and a partner have to help a third, injured otherworlder because they're having trouble walking.

Better head north like the faeries said. The faeries were right that this Heartstone to the north may be your only hope - and you'll have to reach it despite the fading evening light, skies overcast with dark clouds, and fog.

It may be easier navigating in the dark with a partner or two.

e) WILDCARD
Maybe you decide to do none of the above. Go nuts!

OOC DETAILS
❧ Quest magic: Players can handwave that the quest bond magic is tugging the group northward to the safe place, with the mysterious Heartstone. They can also use the quest magic as an excuse for many different threads. As the group tries to run, their scattering movements will affect the magic and cause people to teleport at random, allowing for many different encounters with many other characters. This can explain why two characters that might otherwise stay together through the whole thing might get separated.

❧ Network: The network can now be used. Mirrors can and do float if someone is trying to talk through one and running, and can follow someone as they move, allowing people to communicate on the go or during action. Feel free to start using the network in parallel with the log events.

❧ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc the actions of bystanders, the Nightrenders, and the Sisters. The Sisters won't speak, just continue laughing, and players can npc their specific attacks, capture attempts, and teleportation. Please just don't have them talk or godmode them dying - they're currently a little too sturdy for that. If you have a question about whether/how something will affect them feel free to ask the mods in the first comment below.

❧ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are things left over from the faire people can work with like bow and arrow sets from the competition, horses (which can be temporarily stolen, though we'd like to limit any that are permanently stolen to the (1) horse another player already requested), and even explosive faerie fireworks (they're quieter than the normal thing but still create a big bang). Abandoned stalls also have weapons and supplies to grab as people run for it. If they didn't think to steal or buy useful things during the day, please limit this to only grabbing one or two items as they run, like a cloak or sword. They won't have time to loot for more.

❧ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding to rescuing a 3rd. Players are also encouraged to set limitations if they think it'd be more interesting, like locking their final escape prompt from the faire grounds to a single thread partner and playing out the drama of a full escape.

[OOC: Plot is visible so people can see and start plotting together but not open until Nov. 1. The mods will enable comments then.]

Comments

MOD QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/REQUESTS ETC

[wildestmods]

Ask the mods anything or get help with something by going here!

Please use the ooc comm comment so it's all centralized in one place for the mods.

Dan Sagittarius

[hallelujahjunction]

I. Open to Bunny

[In terms of starting off a mission, Dan's finding this all a lot more pleasant than the sterile sheetcake party back on the Rig; so far, it's largely having jovial conversations with faire-goers, enjoying the free ale, watching the live music, collecting all the information they need in the most joyful and friendly way possible, by getting to meet people. Dan's in his element, schmoozing with the faerie folk and, currently, listening to a summer faerie break down the properties of the wards around the event.

What exactly are you warding against? Dan asks, and then, as if on cue, the fog rolls in and the screaming starts.

Dan launches himself up onto Concrete Blonde and brings her around, moving towards instead of away from the incoming attack. He makes eye contact with Bunny and gives a quick nod; they tend to operate in a certain rhythm together, Dan doing crowd control and sniping from a distance while Bunny more directly addresses the threat. And there's a lot of crowd to control here, with people stampeding through the fairgrounds and smoke monsters belching up from the fog. Somehow, even in this chaos, the laughter of the two people who seem to be behind this rings loud and clear.]

I got your back. I can chauffeur the injured out. [Dan gestures to the horse.]


II. Open to Ace

[While Bunny's occupied with one sister, Dan's doing his best to get people away from the warpath of the second. He's got an unconscious woman draped over the back of his horse, and he only just manages to jump the creature over some wooden fencing and into the clear as some of the second sister's smoke creatures claw at her hooves.

Take her, he says to a faerie folk escaping the faire, lowering the unconscious woman into his arms. I'm going back for anyone still back there.

He wheels the horse around, nocking an arrow into his longbow, something he used a few times growing up but woke up here with an absolute mastery of. He sees a large man on the ground, trapped in a net as a laughing sister drags him and struggles to bring him in. Dan's arrow makes a whistling noise as it zips through the air and lodges in the sister's shoulder. It doesn't seem to affect her.]

Get out! Get out now! [Dan yells at the man on the ground, hoping untangling from the net is even an option.]


III. Open to Kaworu and Jon
CW: Dead Children

[Dan's never looked more like the Sagittarius he derives his stripper name from than right now, firing arrows off a longbow at nightrenders atop his stolen mare. He's ferried a half-dozen injured people out of the line of fire, and has, by now, realized that pinning nightrenders to whatever's right behind them is more efficient than going in for a kill shot.

He sees a teenager from the faire - a gangly, barely-past-puberty kid Dan remembers mostly for trying to look down the bosoms of all the women around the free ale cart, a kid named Brent - fall down in front of a nightrender's massive claws, and Dan directs the horse to peel around so he can take a shot. He snipes the nightrender right through the bicep, impaling the limb and pinning the nightrender to the shop wall behind it, right out of reach of the kid.]

Get up, kid, this way- [Dan grabs Brent by the arm and hoists him up onto the shoulders of the horse, trying to position Brent so they can ride off. It's that split second where he's trying to adjust the kid that the nightrender yanks the arrow out from its arm and thus frees itself from its bondage. Instead of going for Brent, it aims for Dan.

Dan doesn't even notice himself falling off the horse, nor does he notice the nightrender standing on his chest and forcing him to exhale a small, glittering thing, what looks like a precious diamond being coaxed into the mouth of the nightrender.

Dan doesn't notice anything, because he isn't on the battlefield anymore. He's somewhere in his past, so overwhelmed with flashes of kids that look just like him dying with horrific grotesquerie, of being in a beat-up van while he watched his brother's bones vanish from his body or his sister's skin turn to acid, so overwhelmed that he forgets that he ever came to the faire or ever left that bloodstained van at all.]


IV. Open to All

[Thankfully, Dan isn't one of those people who needs time before the next fight; in fact, running straight towards danger tends to be his favored coping mechanism. Kaworu and Jon pulled Dan out of the absolute hell of his own mind, and the only way Dan can see to stay out of there is to go back into the fray.

He finds the horse again and gets astride her, firing arrows off to slow nightrenders down. He doesn't know where Bunny is, doesn't know where Price ran to, but it doesn't matter. There are wounded people trying to get away, and Dan focuses himself on that, backing up anyone he sees struggling and swooping in to haul off anyone he thinks is a sitting target.]

Spencer Hastings | Open to Anyone

[eternalmisery]

[It's been a lovely evening full of fortune-telling, gamboling, revelry, drinking and hearty feasting. The faire's a resounding success, and it seems like everyone is having a good time, from the mudsoaked jousting challengers to the giggly bar wenches to the little children precociously demanding the heads of their enemies on a stick. It's a fantastic event.

The problem? Spencer hasn't been awake for any of it.

She tried to stay awake, and God knows there was enough interesting and disorienting material to take in, but the weeks of sleep deprivation torture has clogged her brain full of cotton, and after the third time finding herself asleep standing up, she's taken the initiative to go to the stables, which she figures will be nice and private and full of soft hay. Spencer's comfortable around horses, even though one tried to murder her once. She clumps some of her voluminous dress around her as a sort of bedding on top of the hay, closes her eyes, and really sleeps for the first time in over a week.

She doesn't wake up when the attacks start. She doesn't even stir when one of the cooking fires lights the hay at the other end of the barn and starts to fill the stable with smoke. She just lays there in the stable, completely defenseless and unaware of her mortal peril.]

Elle Bryant

[millenyal_pink]

For a moment Elle’s senses are completely overwhelmed with the stench of fear and the sound of screams. As she is jostled around by fleeing faire goers, she comes back to herself.

She looks between the monsters, the overturned stalls, the faeries, and the running civilians. She sees a woman and a child hiding behind a stall, trapped by fire and fear, and she runs over.

“This way!” she calls and reaches her hand out.

She stays crouched and escorts the two humans between covered areas, overturned booths, and spreading fires until they reach the edge of the faire grounds.

“Go!” She tells them, then turns and runs back into the faire to find more people.

I) RENT: Open to Dan and Kaworu (PM me if you also want to tag this)

In the chaos, a Nightrender has managed to wound Elle. A great tear has been gouged across her shoulders, staining her pink sweater with blood.

Fuck, she really likes this sweater.

As she instinctively goes to shift, she is caught in the creature's Aura.

Elle is lying prone on the ground and attempting to push through the overwhelming memories. She shakily begins to push herself up as the Nightrender moves in to attack her again.

II) RESCUE: Open to All

Elle has been leading civilians from cover to cover, hidden away from the creatures and into the woods. Her own natural stealth has allowed her to help others to stay unnoticed as well, but her good luck can only last for so long.

While leading a small group away from the chaos and confusion, a Nightrender tears through the fallen booth they were using as cover. Elle immediately puts herself between the creature and the others and begins to change.

Her bones cracks, she sprouts fur all over her body, and she grows to eight feet tall. Supernatural Rage pours from her, potent enough to unsettle even the most stoic of beings.

With a great roar, she bares her fangs at the Nightrender and prepares to pounce.

III) NABBED: Open to All

While she is failing to shred through the Nightrenders the way she would most creatures she encounters, Elle has found great success in knocking them down or tossing them away.

As she disposes on the Nightrenders, she fails to notice one of the Sisters approaching until it’s too late. The net has been cast and Elle has been caught.

She screams as the silver burns her skin on contact. She begins to tear at the net with her claws and teeth, acting on little but instinct, but she only manages to tangle herself further.

Elle is desperately clawing into the ground, trying to anchor herself as the icy chill and weakness sets in. The Sister is beginning to drag her away.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Hey, you!"

Dan isn't talking to Elle as he thunders in on that stolen horse, wielding his longbow and accompanying arrow with so much ease that you'd think he was born with it in his hand. He's trying to get the attention of the nightrender as it moves in on Elle, and he's successful - successful enough in getting its attention that he can fire an arrow through its foot and into the thick mud, hoping that that'll help pin it.

"Get away from her." Dan pulls the horse around again and pins the nightrender's other foot, aware that telling someone to back off while pinning them in place is counterintuitive, but hoping he's making his point clear. He jumps off the horse and grabs Elle, trying to drag her away from the nightrender and get her on the horse-

-when Elle's bad memories crash into his own mind so hard it's almost like the nightrender itself has got him again. Dan gasps and lets go of Elle, then goes to help her up again.

"It's okay. It's not real. It's not happening right now," he whispers in her ear with that scratchy, ragged voice of his, his throat constricted from what he just saw.

[millenyal_pink]

CW: depictions of violence, body horror, dead children

The sound of a window breaking.

Pain wracks through Elle's body as she tries to get upright.

A strange man is in their house. His bones break and reform, his skin tears and heals, and he transforms into a grotesque wolf-like creature. He whips his head around and looks directly at Elle and a teenage boy who looks just like her.

Someone grabs her and she flinches away.

Elle and her brother scream and begin run. Her brother pushes her away as the creature, impossibly fast, catches up to them. She stumbles, falls, and tries to twist to see what's happening behind her.

She can hear someone talking, feel someone touching her, but she can't understand what they're saying.

Elle can only watch as her brother's blood splatters over the white marble floor. She's completely paralyzed by fear as the monster keeps biting and ripping into him. She screams.

She screams.
"ADAM!"

Adam's blood warm on her face. Teeth tearing into flesh. A horrible cackling as her brother is torn apart in front of her.

She's vaguely aware of someone trying to lift her up. She begins to fight against them. She can't leave her brother behind.

Stacia Novik (open to all)

[credit_not_blame]

I: Werewolf? Therewolf!
Stacia looks around, wild-eyed, at the fog and the approaching monsters within it.

"Uh-uh," she says, shaking her head. "Oh no. Fuck that."

Then, to the surprise of anyone who overheard her, she runs toward the horrors, shoving people along as she travels the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd.

"Get out of here!" she yells. "Run! Move!"

Once she's passed the bulk of the crowd, she explodes upward and outward, floral romper vanishing beneath brown and gray fur, fingers curling into taloned claws. The bipedal wolf-monster screams a challenge into the fog.

II: Rent!
The horrible rickety-looking things are remarkably resistant to Stacia's claws. It's one of many things that Stacia doesn't like about them. She's too big for a single one of them to grapple, but she did make a distraction of herself and she's very much regretting that now. There are several on her, trying to corner her, and their combined presence is making the flashes of memory (violent, horrifying, full of monsters and blood and screaming) worse. She can feel her Rage boiling under her skin, but it won't do her any good unless she has some space to move.

III: Nabbed!
Oh does Stacia scream when she's wrapped up in the silver nets. It tears through the fog like a siren, equal parts pain and fury, before the hulking beast slumps and collapses inward to reveal the teenage girl beneath. The teenage girl who is, unfortunately, much easier to carry away into the night.

IV: Rescue!
In this shape, Stacia's not very good at guiding people away from danger. She looks like danger. She has to be careful not to send someone fleeing into the arms of the Nightrenders or one of the burning tents. Fortunately, there are people who seem to be keeping their heads in the chaos. She spots one such person and lopes toward them, shifting back to Homid as she does.

"I'll keep the monsters and the creepy twins off you," she says quickly, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Just focus on the people who need help."

V: Run!
This isn't a fight they're going to win. Stacia's hurting, and she has Garou healing going for her. It's time to retreat before this fight turns into a loss.

Tearing through the woods in Crinos is a bad idea, but that's what Lupus form is for, isn't it? The big bad wolfmonster disappears, leaving a wolf in its place.

Re: Spencer Hastings | Open to Anyone

[talk_radio]

[Despite the monsters swarming everywhere Bumblebee's first priority isn't escaping. It's getting everyone else out of here safely.

One of the Nightrenders moving towards the stables despite the fact that the building on fire is a solid clue that there's someone inside. The monster doesn't get very far before Bee sends it flying with a well-placed kick. He takes a moment to assure himself it's not coming back before ducking down to get a look inside the stables.

The presence of a human girl who has somehow managed to sleep through all of this is surprising. She can't stay here though. Even if he disregarded the Nightrenders Bumblebee is 99% sure that fire plus humans equals bad

Bee cues up a song and turns up his volume as high as it will go for a much-needed alarm.]

♪Wake me up before you go-go!
Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo!♪

Mackenzie Haynes (first prompt is open)

[ragefeathers]

Rent

Mackenzie isn't worried at first. They're just things. She's broken plenty of other people's toys before. It's fun and easy. So she looms upwards into a massive half-wolf, half-man looking creature, a snarl on her face and charges in without regard for her own safety. That's what she does. That's when the memories start to hit her like a ton of bricks falling onto her head all at once. For those nearby, it's only flashes and glimpses--a dark warehouse, an explosion of fire and flame, the sense of loss, of someone being torn away from her. Gunfire. Pain. A body cradled in her arms. None of it makes much sense, but it hurts. What's more it plainly hurts Mackenzie. She dances back, her body trembling, her Rage yearning to be released. She's torn between the urge to fight and the urge to flee--

Made easier when someone else ight need her help. She snaps at someone if they get to close to her, urging them back.

"Go! I fight!" Garou aren't the most articulate in the war-form, sorry.

Run! (Stacia & Ace, Caroline)

The problem with a frenzying Garou is trying to get them to do anything except fight what's in front of them. And Mackenzie is still very much all about the fight. The massive nine-foot death machine is snarling, snapping and clawing at just about whatever is getting close to her, eager to close in on the Nightrenders and keep trying to tear them limb from limb. Unfortunately, with the way things are going that's probably a very good way for her to get dead very quickly.

So it would probably be a good idea for someone (or someones) to either herd her away from the enemy or try to get her to calm her shit.

Kaworu Nagisa | OPEN

[diedforyoursins]

a.

[Everything is a mess. Screaming and running and burning, and in the middle of it all is a scrawny, pale teen, quiet and still like he's in the eye of the storm.

Kaworu senses the presence lunging at him from behind before he sees it, looking over his shoulder just as one of the things thrusts an arm forward. He doesn't flinch, doesn't even blink. Sharp claws come within a foot of his face before being halted abruptly with an almost metallic ringing sound. They clash against some kind of barrier, visible only in a flickering of orange energy that emanates from the point of contact in an octagonal shape. The creature presses against it with a fury, what passes for feet digging into the earth with the effort of it, but the barrier doesn't budge and Kaworu remains still, watching it with a somber thoughtfulness.

He glances away from it to scan the nearby panicked crowds curiously, apparently unconcerned with the clawed thing viciously stabbing and scratching at his barrier. No one seems to pay him any particular attention – no more than they do to anyone else around defending themselves with whatever might or magic is at their disposal.

It's odd. Interesting. He still has no idea what sort of timeline this is, what sort of world this is, and how he fits into it. The unknown is a little thrilling, even in this chaos.

He's only allowed a moment to muse on it before his attention is dragged back to the creature, a more unexpected effect suddenly hitting him. He can feel it like a wave crashing against his AT field in the more metaphysical sense, grief and despair and failure. His serene expression is finally shaken. Pale brows knit together in a wince and he clenches his eyes shut as it all washes over him. The claws even seem to sink ominously into the barrier in his distraction, just a little.

Well. That's definitely unpleasant.]


b.

[The general consensus seems to be run like hell. Those not under the protection of the faeries are heading north into the woods, fleeing the chaos and creatures chasing them.

But by all appearances, one would guess that Kaworu didn't get the memo. He's moving north, sure, but it's completely without any sense of urgency. His pace is relaxed enough that it almost seems like he's being overlooked by the enemies hunting them through sheer nonchalance. Not quite, if the way another Nightrender dashes at him and clashes against his strange energy barrier is any indication, but. Y'know. Someone tell this kid to get his ass moving.]


WILDCARD

((ooc: Hit me with a starter of your own! Feel free to poke me @ tinybro if you wanna plan something specific!))

I

[bringinghopewithme]

"Shout if you need me," Bunny responds to Dan's nod, nevermind that Dan can barely raise his voice above a speaking tone. He knows what Dan needing his help sounds like. If anyone can hear him over the sound of a fight, it's Bunny. But he doesn't expect to be needed, just yet - Dan knows his limits in a fight, if nowhere else, and with Dan on civilian duty, Bunny launches himself to the edge of the fog to find and confront whatever's summoned it.

Cammie MacCloud

[tr1xx]

1. headsnatcher (cw: violence, memories of decapitation by proxy)

a. open

In hindsight, she let her guard down too much. The faire had seemed so harmless that, after everything on the rig, she just wanted to relax for at least a little while. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Like anything's that simple.

The faeries tell them to run north and aye, that seems like a damn good idea, one Cammie has every intention of listening to, until suddenly the world around her is blotted out by the memory of a swirling, dark purple, smoke-like mass of nanites and a four-armed monster mech coming for her.

She doesn't stand a chance after that.

Cammie staggers and stumbles away from a figure that doesn't exist anywhere except her mind and her legs fall out from under her, the weight of the memory pushing her down, down, until she's doubled over on the floor, grasping her hair in closed fists. Agonising pain and bone-deep terror pin her in place, and anyone who comes close will get flashes of a terrifying figure, of metal creaking and tearing in such a way that you can feel it like it's a part of you, and a high-pitched, visceral scream.

b. for Caroline

It's only a matter of time before one of the Nightrenders comes upon such an easy target. Token efforts to push through the flood of memories only ever get her a few steps on her own, and it's only when the Nightrender grabs her by the torso she regains enough clarity to realise just how fucked she is.

It'd almost be funny, how history repeats itself, if she wasn't struggling to even breathe let alone clear her mind. Here she is again in some thing's grasp as it goes for her head, only this time it's really her. No Holon, no metal, just squishy human parts that can ache and bruise and bleed and die and the worst thing is, she can't even do anything about it. Past and present are blurring into one and though she grasps and kicks and screams, it feels like she's just repeating herself, mirroring the memory still running through her mind, still sending out flashes.

In both the past and the present, Cammie braces herself to die.

2. not gonna get me again

It's only when she's far, far away from the Nightrenders that Cammie can hear her own thoughts—with adrenaline pumping through her system she wouldn't even go so far as to say she was thinking clearly again, her mind racing and a familiar mix of anger and fear the force behind every choice she makes.

And the choice she makes is to help. To fight. To do something, to not be so goddamn useless that she's let this same shit happen to her twice now and— focus, Cammie.

a. open

There's people who need help, and that's something Cammie knows how to do just fine. She cuts loose horses with her sword where fumbling hands fail to release them, she shoos people in the right direction when they look lost in panic, she helps people to their feet and passes off the injured to someone who looks like they can help. She moves north, little by little, but she helps.

At one point, she stops when she hears shouting from beneath a collapsed tent—one on the bigger side, the material and poles heavy and at risk of catching light. Cammie runs over and starts trying to shift it, but it's harder than you'd think it should be. With a frustrated grunt, Cammie turns to look around and shouts at the first person she sees, "Oi! Come give me a hand here, would ye?"

b. open

Handy thing about this weird magic sword that's almost as tall as she is: when she's holding it, she feels like she knows exactly what to do with it. Never held a sword in her life before, but you wouldn't know it from the way she wields it, now, striking out at smoke monsters attempting to drag someone else away.

Cammie's short, and hardly muscled, but she didn't get through months of training at home and on the rig without getting fit, and no angry teenage girl should ever be underestimated. As one still-forming smoke being dissipates, she offers her hand to pull them up and says, "Come on, we gotta move! Those things that're blowing this shite out can't be far!"

3. wildcard

[ Throw something else at her, or feel free to hit me up at bluecitrine for ideas. Also, will switch to brackets if you prefer. ]

Re: Dan Sagittarius

[just_ace]

Ace looks up at the man on the horse and contemplates for a brief moment how things managed to get this fucked this quickly... It had been such a lovely day.

He noticed right away when their fae hosts began to get nervous and bustle around. When he heard all the unseelie had cheesed it he knew things were about to get wild.

What he hadn't expected was a fight he couldn't handle. He still hasn't admitted that's what this is, but he has been in better tactical positions...

He had done pretty well at first. He got a few civilians to safety and teamed up with some others to help drive the weird fomori-looking things that moved like they had rabies away from the main evacuation routes.

But he got cocky and didn't see the creepy spirit-thing with the silver net and cool swords sneak up on him.

He had tried shifting to his breed form both for the added resistance to silver and to get smaller in hopes of wriggling out through a gap. All it had done was make him easier to drag.

He can feel the net shifting around him and it feels like he may be about to be scooped into the air losing any leverage and along with it the fight.

I dont think so.

He was just starting to like it here and these fuckers are beginning to piss him off.

With a wink to the dashing hero on his steed Ace begins to change.

The net briefly drops back to the ground before the creature he does not yet know is called a Sister can adjust to its new weight.

The silver net now contains a hulking silver-furred beast.

Ace lets out a piercing howl and buries foot-long claws deep into the earth.

Pain sears him where the net bites into his fur but the faint glow of moonlight seems to rise like mist from the contact points and the pain dulls enough for him to continue to resist.

Slowly, hand-over-hand, he begins to drag the Sister, net and all, across the common. He has no real destination or purpose beyond sheer stubborn resistance. Unaided he is unlikely to escape, but neither can the Sister properly leverage her clearly formidable strength and whisk him away into the bejeweled night sky.

I

[diedforyoursins]

There's the sound of quiet footsteps by Elle's head, nearly lost in all the chaos of the attack. The Nightrender is rushing forward, and then suddenly it isn't anymore.

It's almost like fireworks above her. Orange-yellow light flashes in geometric shapes. Standing above her is a boy silhouetted against the light show, his soft expression nearly lost in the flickering and shadow. For a moment, the monster feels distant, clawing at the opposite side of a barrier of light and energy, all the harsh loud noises of the night melting together until they're indistinguishable.

The girl is bleeding in more ways than one. The fear and distress is pouring off her in a thick haze, barely distinguishable from the old emotions the creature's aura is wringing out of him. Humans just have so much of it. Even after countless lifetimes, he still marvels at how they carry on at all sometimes.

The chest wound probably doesn't help either. And she's still trying to push herself up. Kaworu watches her for a long moment before simply offering a thin hand. The help is hers if she wants it, if all of it is too much to bear alone.

"It's painful, isn't it?"

His voice is soft and smooth and gentle, but it cuts through all the other noise almost just by contrast.

Saturday

[wheyoftheadept]

Closed To Guts

Saturday stretches her arms over her head, walking along in the twilight. Guts is a familiar presence at her side, quiet and watchful. The sun shimmers on the horizon, a dying candle in a pool of wax. The night is drawing down behind them, soft as a bruise and speckled with stars. In a moment, it will be dark. But for now, their shadows stretch out long before them, crossing the last rays of the sun streaming through tents and stalls like the fingers of God.

It feels good. Good like nothing’s felt, recently. There’s a steady, satisfied ache in her legs from walking all day. She’s eaten her fill, she can afford a warm bed tonight, and the heavy purse at her side promises that won’t change anytime soon. Guts had helped her buy supplies for camping, and was going to show her how to use them. She could ask for more - she could ask to be home, for real, or at least to let home know she was okay - but…

She stops in her tracks and smiles up at Guts, suddenly understanding the warm feeling that’s been enveloping her. It’s happiness. The real kind, that sinks into your bones and makes them strong. She’d almost forgotten.

“Hey. You know what? It’s been a pretty good day.”



Open to All

Her nose itches. She’s crouched under the wreckage of a jewelry stall, surrounded by a fortune in magical gems winking in the dark, and her damn nose itches. The horrible thing is still outside, stalking. It knows she’s in this pile somewhere. All she can do is stay as still as she can, and hope it gets distracted, and then she can, can -

Can do what, exactly? The wound in her leg aches coldly. The fucking thing had tagged her. Tagged her! Reached out with claws that stank of vile magic and ripped into her calf as she ran past it, trying to distract it from the frightened couple. She’d goddamned distracted it, all right.

It shouldn’t have been able to get a hit in. It shouldn’t have connected, should have glanced off the way those things always did but it hadn’t. And she doesn’t know why.

She can feel it moving around her. Herky-jerky, stuttering, malicious. She can’t get any smaller than she already is, not unless she stops breathing. And she can’t stop thinking about the worst things that have ever happened to her. It’s a magical effect - has to be - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working. It’s stalking around the wreckage, toying with her, and all she can feel is roiling dread, all she can think of is how it hurt her and Maggie isn’t here to fix it. She’s failed them all so many times, and now she’s going to fail them again, here, dying as a hiding, wounded animal -

The tent rips away, scattering jewels like stars. Saturday tries to run. The horrible thing grabs her around the waist and squeezes. She gasps, and can’t get back her breathe. It raises her to its tortured face, sneering, and tilts up her chin as its mouth opens like the gate to hell.

She finds her breath and screams.

Re: I

[millenyal_pink]

"No fucking shit," Elle bites out, pain lacing her words.

Hands wrap around her throat and squeeze.

She braces herself against the memories and takes his hand.

The sound of a gunshot, a wound opening in her gut.

The memories have her off-balance but she's not completely incapacitated anymore.

A sword piercing between her ribs.

With the strange boy's help, Elle begins to pull herself up.

[hallelujahjunction]

"Be careful," Dan says as Bunny goes, but he isn't actually terribly worried. Sometimes, seeing Bunny in danger sets off some kind of panic for Dan, but only sometimes. Usually, he feels like he does now, completely at ease in a dangerous setting and entirely confident in Bunny's capacity to get into the thick of it and still come home to him safely.

Dan brings the horse around and rides perpendicular to Bunny's path, swooping the edges of the fog to help usher the slower members of the crowd out.

Run

[just_ace]

Ace's ears perk up at the familiar but still utterly terrifying sound of an Ahroun in full frenzy.

The next sense to register as he scans the ongoing melee is scent. The Nightrenders themselves have a strange non-smell, like if fungus were also void. Over that there is a lot of blood and sweat and fear, but also the distinct signature of flannel, turkey grease and musk that has to belong to Mackenzie, the woman he met earlier.

It isn't long before he spots her. She is headed the wrong direction and is furiously trying to tear apart one of the nightmares. Most of the newcomers quickly learned that was futile, but full-moons are stubborn and he himself had required rescue before finally admitting they need to retreat or at least change tactics.

It looks like Mackenzie lost her cool before she could come to that conclusion herself. Understandable, but inconvenient... He likes her and has decided she is his new friend. No one has told her that yet, but that's not the point.

Oh well, nothing else for it.

Others might have more elegant solutions, but he only knows one way to stop a frenzying ahroun. Time to hug it out. This is going to hurt.

III Nabbed!

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday doesn't recognize the girl tangled in the sinister silver nets. She doesn't need to. Monsters bad: fight monsters, save girl.

She bellows a challenge and dives in. The one with the sword intercepts her; the bitch with the chain scythe moves behind her, thinking Saturday won't notice. But she can feel them, unnatural in their passing, like razorblades along the weave of the world.

She ducks down and rolls. Sword-bitch's blade bites the earth, and she has to jerk back as scythe-bitch's chain hisses past her face, aimed at the place Saturday's back was a moment ago. Saturday is already by the net as they recover, pulling at the strands. Then she sees their captive's face.

"Stacia?"

And the net is silver -

"Fuck. Fuck!"

Behind her, the sisters regroup and advance.

1a

[wheyoftheadept]

"Nn - " Saturday grunts, Cammie's memories hitting her like a fist. But they're not her memories. They're not her pain. They don't have any hooks, they can't linger. She can push through and she does, collapsing next to the other woman.

"Cammie? Cammie, that you? It's me. Saturday. From the Rig. We gotta move." She tugs at Cammie's shoulder, trying to get her to stand. "Get up! Move! Come on!"

[diedforyoursins]

His skin is cool. He doesn't seem terribly strong, but it's something to pull herself up with and that's better than nothing. And the slight squeeze he gives her hand is maybe just a bit grounding. As she gets to her feet, he looks up to the creature doing its best to break through the barrier, striking hard and darting to the side to come at them from other angles. It meets a firm resistance every time, light and crackling energy dancing around them. And for what it's worth, the strange boy doesn't seem the least bit concerned about it.

Her feelings and memories are a greater concern. They threaten to drown both of them with wave after wave of despair. It's unfortunate, really, that this easy connection comes at a time like this. Kaworu frowns, reluctantly pulling his mind away from hers to focus on the now.

He's not quite fast enough that nothing leaks back the other way, though.

A cockpit of some sort, red all around them, another boy's face wet with tears as he presses desperately against the invisible barrier between them, the feeling of failure and resignation as the choker around Kaworu's neck begins to activate–

"The physical pain is easier," he says, simple and straightforward in the face of her irritation. "It's temporary. But the heart doesn't heal so easily. This is crueler."

Little Cato - cw: lots of harm to children, child abuse/imprisonment, child murder

[furtitude]

a) RENT [OPEN]

For Little Cato, there is a deep well of nightmarish memories for the Nightrender aura to draw from. Even discounting most of the last four years, he has 60 years of deeply repressed memories of soul-crushing loneliness, so bad he outright lost his damn mind.

And yet he doesn't curl up on the ground and wait to die. Even as the nightmares of the past play behind his eyes, he struggles to his feet, over and over, every time he falls. He looks almost blackout drunk, like he can barely see what's going on around him.

He fights hard enough that when a Nightrender looms up before him, he's still able to lash out with one of his swords, but it just bounces off the Nightrender's hard skin.

"S-stop. Stop. Get out of my head!"

Anyone that comes close will feel bad memories crash against them like a storm surge, memories no child his age should have.

a-1

An extremely small alien with a round green head, eyes glowing a sinister yellow, looms above raging fires in a dead, decrepit meadow.

Little Cato is much younger, smaller, held in place by two guards in very Stormtrooper-esque uniforms. Another older Ventrexian stands nearby, wearing a severe military uniform. His fur is much different, somewhat more plain, black with a white strip down his face. He has no mohawk-like tuft of hair on his head and his eyes are a bright yellow instead of the Little Cato's bright green. It's hard to tell that they're actually related - because they aren't. Avocato is not Little Cato's real father.

"Dad?" he says, eyes wide, frightened. The older man says nothing.

All around Little Cato are other children, in a curve around the field, some of them even younger, hands bound behind their backs, all forced to their knees. Some of them hang their heads in quiet resignation, others sob, a few are begging, voices high and terrified ("I want to go home, Papa, please take me home!")

Older people stand nearby, the same species as each child. They all wear similar uniforms to the adult Ventrexian.

"For eternity! For Lord Commander!" the adults chant, and then every one of them other than Little Cato's father shoots their child in the head, blood and brains spattering onto the ground. Little Cato watches them all fall, one by one, face first into the dirt.

Then he turns to his father, expression stricken, desperate, arms tensed where the guards hold them firmly and his father raises his gun and points it at him at him...

"Do it, Avocato, and become my first," the Lord Commander's voice rumbles, as he grins a wicked, toothy grin. "Do it."

a-2

Little Cato is in a cell, mostly empty, with clear forcefield walls. There's a hallway beyond, like this is an open place where people can sometimes comes in and see him imprisoned. He looks to be be maybe 2 or 3 years younger, which means he's very small. A tray of food has been dropped to the ground so that most of whatever mush was in it has slopped out onto the floor.

The Lord Commander floats in the air, his back temporarily turned. The memory catches the moment Little Cato grips a piece of scrap metal he's palmed and secretly sharpened, sliding it out of his wrist wrap. Then the child tries to do a murder, teeth gritted, running up behind the alien, but just as he gets to him, the alien turns and basically does a telepathic force-choke, grabbing the boy by the neck with invisible power. It stops him from his attempt to slit the alien's throat.

"Did you really think you'd actually manage to kill me?" the Lord Commander taunts, wrenching the shiv away with telekinesis, lifting Little Cato off the floor by the throat and squeezing. Little Cato chokes and claws desperately at nothing, finding no purchase on anything he can hurt to break free. "When will you get it through your thick skull? I'm the one that decides whether you live or die, not the other way around."

Little Cato kicks desperately but there's nothing to kick against. His eyes start to roll back in his head, and whoever's experiencing the memory gets a sense of what he saw in the moment, black creeping in from the edges of his vision, glowing yellow eyes and glinting sharp teeth the only things lighting up the oncoming dark.

Before the darkness finally takes him, the Lord Commander hurls the boy against the wall so hard he winds up with a bloody nose. Little Cato crumples to the ground, and curls up there, wheezing.

"My --" wheeze "-- father --"

"Your father will never find you. I own him," Lord Commander snarls, and then he floats closer, looming over him. Little Cato stays down. "Because I own you. You. Belong. To me."

a-3

In the memory, Little Cato's other father, Avocato, stands there on a dusty, battered world with a gun in his hands, his eyes glowing a toxic, bright pink.

Gary is dragging himself along the ground, hand clasped over a torso wound that pulses with red blood, pooling rapidly on the ground. Little Cato is looking on in horror from where he kneels nearby, catching his breath after getting kicked.

"Avocato, whatever that thing is, it's poisoning your mind! You asked me to look after your boy. We broke time to save you! We're friends!" Gary cries out.

"I'm not your friend!" snarls Avocato, shooting Gary again through the shoulder; Gary cries out in pain and collapses. Little Cato crawls over and wraps both arms around Gary's head.

"Stop! Please stop!" he begs his other father, pulling out his own blaster and training it on him with a shaking hand.

"You would choose him over your own father?"

"Please! If you're in there, stop this!" Little Cato cries out, eyes welling with tears.

"I would never father something so weak!" Avocato growls, advancing on the two.

"Please!" Little Cato begs, but Avocato keeps advancing. Finally, one of their guns goes off.

It's Little Cato's. Blood blooms from the chest wound on Avocato's body. Little Cato sobs out, "I'm sorry!"

"You are no son of mine!" Avocato says, collapsing to his knees. Shadows reach out of the ground and start to wrap around him.

"I am your son. I am," Little Cato says softly. "Always will be."

"I will find you, and I will kill you!"

He gasps, "You aren't my father."

"Neither is he!" Avocato says raggedly, the shadows consuming him into the ground, as Little Cato continues cradling Gary's head.

d) RUN [LOCKED TO ELLE AND CATRA]

He's so close to the edge of the faire. So close. But it's too hard to see when the visions keep creeping in and out. He keeps having trouble staying oriented to the present, his body keeps acting the way it had in the past.

He drops a few meters short of the woods, struggling with a memory that's too painful, too recent.

"You can't...you can't hurt me with this, it's already - it can't hurt as much as the first time."

Whatever place he's in in the memory is hellish. A teenage girl with glowing magenta eyes and pink hair floats in the air behind him, against the backdrop of a giant magenta eye radiating swirling dark energy. The pupil is focused on the two of them. The glowing light of the eye matches the glowing light in the girl's eyes.

Gary and another Ventrexian, Avocato, stand in front of them, looking concerned and afraid for Little Cato. Little Cato turns to look at the girl, Ash.

"Little Cato," she says, "don't forget: they don't deserve you! They never will!"

Little Cato turns, his back to Ash and the evil eye, facing his father, looking stricken. He calls out raggedly, "Did you really do it?! Did you kill my parents?"

Avocato lowers his guns, eyes widening as he realizes his son truly knows the truth.

"From your mouth!" calls out Ash. "Tell your son. What. You. Did!"

"I'm sorry," Avocato says, his ears flattening against his head. "I'm so sorry."

"Did. You. Do it?!" Little Cato calls out.

Avocato hangs his head and finally murmurs, "Yes."

The world tilts. Little Cato gasps out shuddering gasps and collapses like a puppet with cut strings, dropping awkwardly to his knees. He presses his forehead to the ground, burying his face in his arms, fists clenched, and moans out "Nooo!" and starts to sob despondently.

When he finally sits up, his eyes are wide with clear shock, like he's starting to outright dissociate from the moment.

"I told you, you can't go back," says Ash in a voice that's clearly off-kilter. "It's me and you forever now."

"You can't hurt me with this again, not the same way," he says, fumbling along blindly towards the trees, completely unseeing. But the tears that stream down his face say otherwise. "I already know."

It can hurt him with it. He can barely see and two Nightrenders are creeping towards him.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan wants to keep saying it's not real, that what's real is the violence in front of Elle, not in her mind. But he knows as well as anyone that just because something isn't current doesn't mean it isn't real; her brother's death is real. His family's death is real. It lives with them as if it weren't even in the past - he knows instantaneously that it's the same for her as it is for him.

So he changes what he's telling her, trying to keep her from fighting him by restraining her arms, using his most calming tone of voice as his head is swimming. "You're not there. You ain't there anymore."

What happened to her, to her brother, happened. It remains as real as the day it happened. It's just somewhere, sometime, somewhen else.

Dan wants to be gentler, but the nightrender is freeing itself of its pins, and so he has to choose between being kind and being effective. He hauls her to her feet, letting her hit him if she's still trying to, and starts to drag her towards the horse.

II (cw: dissociation)

[just_ace]

When a battle gets going time distorts and if you are lucky enough to survive the memorable moments eventually settle into something resembling order.

If you are really lucky and some friends survive too, you can share stories and maybe piece together a bigger picture.

In doing that you often find that skirmishes you thought took hours were over in a span of minutes and a series of clashes that flew by you in a blur took most of a night.

Ace has been fighting for what feels like half an hour, maybe an hour, but honestly it could be minutes or days. He feels disconnected, almost dissociated and he worries for a moment that he is slipping back into the deep umbra, back to the celestial war after a far too brief reprieve.

Just as the feeling that he is slipping away becomes overwhelming he is drawn back by a familiar figure in the haze in front of him. The Pumonca in war-form smells familiar too but the scent and the image don't match up and as he draws near the figure isn't quite right in either size or markings to be who he first thought.

Dealing with the moment of cognitive dissonance is enough to focus him and draw him the rest of the way back to the present.

That is definitely Elle sneaking up on nightrenders and rescuing trapped villagers. When she said she was in Isaac's pack he thought she was another wolf he'd adopted not his kid sister or something.

He waited until her current ambush was accomplished and loped up to join her for the next.

"Said I'd get your back. Who's day are we ruining next?"

[hallelujahjunction]

"Werewolf, huh?"

Dan's got a wild grin on his face as he watches Ace change, glad that the tide of the fight might be less uneven than Dan thought. It's been a hard battle so far, one that Dan's going to have to process with a lot of alcohol and a lot of rough nights, but he doesn't have to process it now.

Now, he can just feel the purity of focus, of knowing that there are people to help, adrenalin washing everything out from his mind except exactly one step ahead. He guides the horse around and, as he can see the Sister is being dragged, launches another arrow at her; for whatever reason, his quiver always seems to be full, and he isn't about to question why.

What he is questioning is how to help Ace get out of the net entirely. Dan takes a second to just assess the situation, the way the net is set up, the points of weakness in the Sister's weapons.

"Pull it taut!" he yells to Ace, even though Ace is already doing a pretty good job of that, yanking the Sister across the field, but before Dan gets to act on his plan the Sister decides to stop being pulled around by Ace and swing sideways, using Ace pulling her as a fulcrum so that she can whip at Dan at full speed, katanas bared.