OOM - The Labyrinth Part III

[theresnodoor]

"Jo!"



The castle is as dark as ever it was before, with the added benefit of the section Rachel is currently trying to look into having no torch. No source of light at all beyond the torch in the hand that isn't pressed to the tile, trying to peer into darkness for her friend.

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

The ground is hard. The ground always is.
But springy. Which is almost never is.

And breathing isn't first before it.



It's strange, softer, but edged.
Definitely shaped. Like vines?

[theresnodoor]

When there's no answer, Rachel curses sharply and braces one hand at the edge of the hole. Her other is occupied with the torch and when she leans over to thrust it into the darkness, the muscle of her arm trembles warningly.

She bares her teeth and reaches down into the hole with the torch, hoping it will illuminate something helpful. Like a living Jo.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo looked up toward the flare of odd shadows toward the light.
"I'm okay," she called up.




At least as much as drowning and falling was.




At least the music wasn't down here with her.

[theresnodoor]

A sharp exhale that may have been tinged with more irritation than relief. Rachel shifts her gaze from the woman to the shadows around her, squinting in the darkness.

Green. Sort of wet looking, shiny.

The music is still going on around her, with that odd rustling sound.

"What are you sitting on?"

[tobeclosetohim]

"Some kind of plant."

Jo tried tearing the pieces in her hand apart.

[theresnodoor]

Rachel frowns, hesitating. Plenty of pants are dangerous, right? Though Jo's probably okay so long as she doesn't eat it.

Right?

"Okay," she says after a moment, shifting the torch to search the walls - and feeling somewhat relieved when she finds an unlit torch waiting in the chamber. "Hang on and I'll get you out."

...though Jo is nearly ten feet straight down. This could take a minute to figure out.

[tobeclosetohim]

"I'll be here." Is half distracted.





It doesn't pull apart easy at all.
In fact, it reminds her strangely of ripcord.

[theresnodoor]

The problem is the drop. Ten feet, give or take, needing to get up - with Jo - afterward.

Elephant maybe, Rachel thinks, sitting back on her heels and chewing the inside of her cheek. She adjusts the torch to hang over the hole, give as much light as she can. Except the tile they're standing on might not take a several-ton animal stomping on top of it.

Probably won't help Jo if a few ceramic tiles and an elephant fall on top of her.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo would really like an elephant not to drop on her.



Though at present she's tugging the plant.
Thin, but so strong. How strange.



Not as strange as when it tugs back suddenly. "What the--"

[theresnodoor]

Right. So maybe not elephant. Which means no trunk, since just concentrating on the nose doesn't mean she won't get elephant-gut at the same time. But there's no other morph that gives her the right length or leverage, nothing able to climb that's strong enough to pull Jo up with her. All these torches and magic satchels and not a single rope.

Frowning, just on the verge of muttering to herself, Rachel calls back almost distractedy, "What?"

[tobeclosetohim]

It slides through her hands. Leaves and vine.
Making her pull back. Anyone else would have imagined.
But Jo was trained, when she was, to notice the small things.

The things out of the corner of your eyes.
The ones everyone tells themselves didn't happen.


And it totally moved. So she tugged back harder this time.

[theresnodoor]

Size is the problem. Climbing morphs are not a problem, but size. Jo's not big but she's definitely not small either.

If she could just morph like a sensible person who walks calmly into danger...

Though, there's always one option. Which could probably work.

Probably.

"Okay. I need you to not freak out."

[tobeclosetohim]

"About what?"

Why doesn't she have a lighter.

Is there something worse up there, too?
What was the quite almost slithering noise.

[theresnodoor]

"What I'm going to look like in a minute."

She needs a place to put the torch. Which means taking the light away from the hole to search the walls near her for a sconce.

[tobeclosetohim]

"I could care less what it is you look like compared to be in a hole in the dark." Which was that noise getting louder now that it was pitch dark?

[theresnodoor]

That noise is not Rachel's concern, as music floods her senses almost as soon as she steps away from the hole. But she has to - the sconce is further down the hall and she'll need both hands free for this. And feet. And probably her tail, too.

When she has one.

Getting the image into her mind is harder than usual, but not by much. Even if the changes are slow and her focus a little off, there are some morphs that are impossible to forget.

As muscle ripples and builds beneath her skin, Rachel feels two razor-sharp, glinting blades slide smoothly out from her forehead. First of many.

[tobeclosetohim]

Whereas Jo has silence.

Odd echoes of music.

And slithering.







It's fucking annoying waiting.

[theresnodoor]

Wah.



Heavy footsteps partnered with clicking, not unlike high-heeled shoes. If the shoes were size 30.

Hork-Bajir are herbivores, but they certainly don't look it. Seven feet tall on average, reptilian skin thick and leathery, vicious beaks and beady eyes. And that's before the blades, razor-sharp and sprouting from every joint as well as the forehead, the two barbs on the tail.

Construction dictates that blades should only be used to strip bark from trees for a meal. Practically in certain situations argues that they're quite useful for cutting other things, too.

Getting to her knees - carefully of the blades sprouting both from those joints as well as those in her ankles - Rachel peers into the hole. Night vision is nonexistant, but at least there's excellent hearing to back her up. Jo's small movements, the music and...

Slithering.

<Is something moving down there?>

[tobeclosetohim]

"Probably."

Jo's saying that a lot more calmly than she feels.
Her knife was at least not too hard to find here.
But not being able to see where is whatever is.



"Doubt my hole of darkness are made for tea parties."

[theresnodoor]

Light. Light would be helpful in the hole of darkness. Awkward to carry and handle while climbing down, but if something's moving (and it's unlikely to be a friendly rabbit with an obsession to be punctual), torch would be helpful.

No time is wasted: Rachel is up, retrieving the torch and dropping down the hole a moment later, free clawed hand gripping the edge as she drops, the muscle in her green arm tensing as she dangles with the torch in hand, lighting up her own interesting shape, Jo... and everything else in the chamber.

[tobeclosetohim]

Jo grit her teeth with the first flashes of light caught the new visage of Rachel.

Definitely not human. Definitely far into monster.

It's a lot distracting from the light even.

[theresnodoor]

Not to Rachel, who is focusing quite well at the moment.

And everything else in the chamber?

Is a plant. A big - big - fat plant that Jo is sitting on with a lot of vines. And nothing that should be slithering.

In fact, as Rachel drops the rest of the way to the floor and moves toward the available sconce, the sound itself is gone. Scared away, maybe.

[tobeclosetohim]

The grip on her knife is hard enough her knuckles are white.

And she isn't looking much away from whatever it is....




Even if. Well. That's a really big plant everywhere, too.

[theresnodoor]

Torch in sconce. Stomping on a few plant vines on her way. Then squinting up at the hole above them, judging the distance.

Only then does Rachel look at Jo.

There are no eyebrows to lift but there is a beak that can click irritably.

<Want to quit taking in the ambiance and, say, I don't know... get out of here? Up and at 'em, Jo.>

[tobeclosetohim]

Creepy. Clinking. Spiky. Monster. With Rachel's voice.


And was that a question about touching...her?
In a body-part's not splattered on the wall fashion?



"What is that."