faderift | Just a little adventure, really quick, in and out. Back before you know it.

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Just a little adventure, really quick, in and out. Back before you know it. | Closed

WHO: Glimmer, Abby, and Ellie
WHAT: Three girls get assigned to do a job together and two of them get along two cats in a sack. Surely nothing can go wrong.
WHEN: Sometime in mid-Guardian/mid-Pluitanis
WHERE: The Fallow Mire
NOTES: Violence done to zombies/demons at some point; possible discussion of past traumas and conflicts. Swearing. Lots of swearing.

Glimmer had been excited to finally get assigned a little 'project' with Ellie and Abby. At least, that had been the first reaction--something to do with two people she liked! Then after that initial excitement had faded, there'd been a grim realization that Ellie and Abby got along about as well as fire and water.

Maybe this wouldn't be so fun. The feeling of apprehension had grown and grown as the date for their departure had loomed closer and closer until at last, early one morning, they had loaded up Blanche and Artichoke with rations, camping gear, and everything else they'd need for a jaunt to the the Fallow Mire. Surprisingly, Abby and Ellie while still tense didn't seem on the verge of killing each other at the drop of a pin, which was a relief. Naturally, though, Abby had to ride behind Glimmer.

As they finally had made landfall, Glimmer was taking a moment to stretch herself out as she surveyed the marshy island that was going to become their base of operations. It was relatively flat at least, about 100 meters long and 20 across. The edges of the swampy spot were muddy (everything was muddy, but it was extra muddy) and twisted swamp trees sprouted, offering shelter and casting looming shadows that got worse as the afternoon dragged on.

Tugging the panniers off of Blanche, she turned to look back at the other two setting up camp.

"We might need to switch up who rides which griffon. That or make sure they get some good rest..." She gave Blanche a good pat on the flank.

"So, money on the carts just being abandoned or whether we actually run into anything?"

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Ellie can't disagree with Abby, so she rolls her head to one side, gives Glimmer an apologetic smile, a shrug of the shoulder as if to say sorry about it.

"Fire tents?" Ellie scoffs softly, and flicks out her switchblade. The last time she used this one Abby it was to make an ugly wound, this time... well. With steady hands she takes Abby's wrist, leverages the blade against her thumb, and lifts the edge of the splinter. Ellie picks it first with the blade, then with her blunt fingernails, but can't get a good hold on it.

"Called 'em tepees 'cause of the shape," she says absently, and before Abby can ask anything else, she curses under her breath. She could dig it out with the knife, but then she'll be doing the damage she was trying to avoid.

"Glimmer? I can't feel my fuckin' hands. Can you get the end of this and pull it out?"

"My hands probably aren't much better," Glimmer protests, but she shifts herself over to squeeze in between the other two so she can look at the splinter in question. She squints. Fingers splay over Abby's hand for a moment while Glimmer considers her angle, then tries to dig one (slightly less blunt) fingernail underneath the splinter.

"...Almost," she murmurs. "Hold still." There's a faint grimace and she finally manages to grab hold of the splinter.

"I thiiiiink I got it--" And with that, she gives a firm little tug to extract the offending bit of wood.

Yeah, fire tents, picked because it was the dumbest sounding term she could think of on the spot but she doesn't get a chance to say it; historically, nothing good has ever happened to her after Ellie pulls out a knife.

"... This doesn't have to be a group activity," she mutters, after Ellie's exhausted her own attempt– but Glimmer's in the mix immediately anyway, and thankfully she's the one with the magic touch. The splinter is out.

Abby reclaims her hand with a wince, shaking it. "Thanks." First hurdle overcome. Easy. "Hopefully that's the worst injury we have to deal with." Fingers crossed?

Ellie props up Abby's wrist for her, squinting in the gloom to make sure they have enough light, though she huffs about Abby's weak protests.

"Nailed it," she says by wait of praise, when Glimmer works out the splinter, and drops her hand, scooting towards the fire to warm her hands.

"Ugh, don't say that shit out loud," she mutters, thinking of what she'd said after the battle in the city -- about how no one was lost. It hadn't taken very long for that to be proven a lie. Ellie doesn't like to think she's superstitious, but damn.

"We should keep watch, just in case. Go searching when it's light."

Glimmer takes a moment to look very proud of herself for succeeding where Ellie failed. Maybe even a little smug! Then she leans back to get closer to the fire, her expression muted.

"Good idea. I think waiting until morning is a good plan--we're going to lose the light here in an hour or two and I don't want to be out in the muck in the dark."

Abby nods, agreeing. "If we don't have to fight in the dark, we shouldn't."

Even if it means... sharing a tent.

She makes a face at her splinter-free palm. The most annoying part of all of this by far is that they all have to act like they're on a cute little camping trip together. Even the keeping watch bit irritates her a little. Her and Ellie are far from actually attacking each other, but she still doesn't like the idea of her being up, near by and awake while Abby is asleep.

Not that she's all that likely to get much sleep out here anyway.

"Wish I could have brought the dog." A little mutter, like an afterthought.

Ellie finds Glimmer's smug look in the darkness and sticks the tip of her tongue out at her, mostly to hide a smile. She's got a right to be satisfied, but still.

She puzzles over Abby's comment for a moment, though, hesitating before deciding not to say anything to it -- let Glimmer respond to that if she wants. Instead she stacks up a little more wood for the fire, setting it inside the corner of the tent where it'll hopefully not get quite so wet.

"... anybody's hand hurting?" she asks, carefully.

"Aw, I know. Your dog is adorable," Glimmer says with a sigh. At least they have the gryphons to give them cute animal companionship.

"...Mine isn't?" Glimmer replies as she tries to huddle a little closer to the fire.

"Why?"

"Means a rift is nearby," Abby supplies, plucking off her glove to examine her own shard, "Or that we're too far from the Gallows, I guess."

She hasn't experienced the pain that reportedly sets in if you stray too far from your fellow Rifters. Not yet, anyway. Maybe having Ellie and Glimmer around will be enough to keep the shard satisfied until they start to head back.

Hrm. It's... far too tempting to pick at the base of it where it protrudes almost seamlessly from her palm. After a beat of rubbing at the shard uselessly with her thumb, she puts her glove back on.

Blurts into the silence, "I can take first watch."

May as well get that squared away.

Edited 2022-03-29 09:19 (UTC)

Ellie hums agreement, while Artichoke grumbles and clacks his beak because he's cute too, thanks, he doesn't need to listen to this slander! Ellie snickers to herself, then tosses him a small chunk of dried sausage. She's not incredibly hungry, but she's tired, and eager to get to bed.

Maybe it says something that she's not particularly worried about Abby keeping watch while she sleeps. She knows she won't knife her or anything-

But things could still go wrong.

"Fine by me. I'll take second," she says, and shoves off, crawling into the tent. She tries to ignore the way her ears are pricked for any conversation between Glimmer and Abby- she doesn't want to care.

"Wake us up if your hands starts hurting, or anything."

Seems a useless thing to say, when Abby already knows the drill. But it's a distraction from the way the rain's pattering down on the top of the tent. She tucks herself into one side of it, leaving room for Glimmer in the middle.

---

Ellie does eventually sleep, but the things in the swamp don't. There are eyes in the dark, reflective red like animals, that blink in and out. Things that stir in the brackish water, the shadows of black on black. The hissing sound of the rain covers most sounds, but there are still distant cries of whatever lurks out here.

It almost seems like the first watch will pass without incident, when a soft glow cuts through the trees, blinking in and out like firefly lights. It's there and gone, hovering on a sandbar. But every time, the outline of it gets a touch more clear, the light brighter.

Finally, it's bright enough to glint on what hairless, bloated thing is pulling itself from the boggy water. Slimy, rotting.

It smells like death.

Any conversation with Glimmer doesn't last much longer, the silence fire-lit and comfortable, broken by one or two questions, and easy chatter. After fifteen minutes or so, Abby gives her a shoo. She's third up, but she should get as much rest as she can. Glimmer disappears into the tent, and leaves her sitting on the bank, giving the fire a good stoke before she settles in for the night.

The soft sound of light rainfall might have proved soporific under other circumstances. Thankfully, Abby is wired and alert. She makes little grooves in the dirt by the fire with her boot, and stares at the flames, and thinks.

Flinches, when something soft snaps in the distance. A twig underneath the foot of an animal most likely, but she still looks.

Hard to see. It's pitch black out here. She squints through the gloom, and takes a step away from the fire to better hide the outline of her towering silhouette, breath caught between her teeth as she waits. Waits, waits.

She might have thought the shard would alert her, but the smell hits her first, sends a wave of shivering disgust up the length of her spine. Fuck, she knows that smell, she hates that smell, she hasn't missed it for a second–

"Hey." She'd meant it for the tent, but something in the darkness answers her spoken word instead, though not with any of its own. A gurgling wail startles her. It's closer than she thought it would be but slower, a runner would have been at her throat already.

"Ellie!" She shouts it, suddenly, and the corpse lurches out at her from the darkness. She swings at it, and her mace bounces off its torso with a dull clang- it's wearing armor, "Glimmer! We've got trouble!"

Glimmer is asleep almost as soon as she hits her bedroll. It's damp outside and the long day of travel combined with the soft sound of the rain on the tent is enough to lull her into slumber quickly. She's still asleep, dreaming fitfully of home, when Abby's voice cuts into her and shakes her free of her slumber.

"Abby--?!" She says, still sleep addled as she gropes for her staff and clambers out of the tent. She'd stripped out of damp cloak and outer layer as best she could and an attack in the middle of the night means little time to think about changing. She stumbles into the circle of fire-light and lets out a shriek at the sight of the walking corpse.

"Fuck that--!" She says and there's a blast of magic from her staff that hits the thing full in the face to send it tumbling back from Abby. Whether that's enough to kill it, she isn't sure, but at least it's breathing space.

Ellie wasn't sleeping too deeply, but she'd been dozing, hating the sound of the rain and the soft croaks of the insects in the brackish water -- but Abby's yell rouses her quick enough. She gives a snort as she yanks herself awake, paws on her backpack in preparation for a quick getaway, grabs her bow.

Stumbles on the edge of the tent on the way out, and Glimmer manages to throw a hell of a glitterbomb in the walking corpse's face. It reels backward and into the bog with a sickening splash and the stomach-twisting smell of burning, rotting flesh.

"Oh, fuck ME," Ellie gasps, eyes wide, and nearly fumbles one of her arrows as she nocks it, staring wide-eyed at Glimmer. The thing in the bog doesn't get up again.

Unfortunately, several more do, dragging themselves from the water, reeking, coming after their light and life.

"Shit, fuck, fuckshit-" Ellie pulls back and gets off a shot, which hits one of the things in a shoulder and sticks. It gives a jerk, but it doesn't seem to hurt it, which is more unnerving than the rest of it. Even with infected, they obviously felt pain.

She gets off another arrow, and this one literally goes through a gap in a ribcage, clattering off the bones.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" she yells, throwing her hands up.

"Thanks-" She manages on a ragged exhale, because she's just noticed another wet hand pawing up onto the bank. Trust this goddamn place to give her exactly what she wants but with a twist: undead who are more bone than skin, and wearing enough armor that it's difficult for her to find places her mace should go.

She remembers the attack on the Gallows, and Jone's torn open lip. Don't waste time on the chest, face and neck–

When she reaches out toward one skeleton with her gloved hands to grab it by the face it bites her through the leather; she screams instinctively, and twists. There isn't nearly enough sinew to keep the head on top of the spine. The body crumples, when the neck snaps.

"I'm fine," she shouts, heart hammering, ignoring the instinct to rip her glove off and check if those fucking teeth went into her skin or not, "More coming. Go for the head!"

"Fuck you! Fuck this!" Glimmer is cursing as she fires off another spell, narrowly missing her target and the magical energy fizzles into the fetid waters of the fens.

"Oh you cock--" Focus!

Glimmer tries to ignore the cold, clammy feeling her shirt sticking to her skin as the rain continues. She levels her staff as another corpse shuffles up the muddy bank towards Abby and lets off another bright white-and-pink shock of magic at it's face. The blast catches it and it collapses into a pile of harmless bones and armor, the skull half-blasted away.

"Why couldn't this just be easy?" She laments.

"You happy about there being undead now, Abby?!"

Abby's far stronger than these rotting creatures of bone and sinew, but it doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. They're not bound by human limitations, human pain, and Ellie flinches when she hears Abby scream. The thick snapping noise keeps her from sprinting to her side -- instead she makes her way to where the griffons are rearing up against their leads as the corpses shamble closer, and pulls the knots free from the twisted tree they're tied to.

There's no time to saddle up, but with him and Blanche free, they can at least defend themselves.

Ellie turns back to the fight, but not in time to avoid the grasping, fetid hand of a corpse. It's weaponless, a nameless victim of the bog, but inhumanly strong. And it gets a hold around her throat.

With a muffled curse, Ellie grips the thing's arms, slams her knee into its solar plexus. Ribs crack and buckle, but in this case, Ellie's experience works against her. Unlike Infected, these things don't feel pain.

The grip doesn't ease.

"Oh shut up!" Not happy, but not exactly pressed either now that she's figured out the best way to deal with the skeletons. Another one socks her in the side, drawing a wheeze, and she takes a big step backward out of range just to get her bearings.

More coming up out of the bog. What if they keep coming and don't stop?? Glimmer is punching into opponents with her magic. Ellie is– not invisible, but by the griffons, loosing them from their posts, and one of the undead grabs her, almost pulls her off her feet in the process.

Abby moves before she can think twice. She jams the heel of her hand into the atlas of the spine. The vertebrae crack, and separate under the force, and then just as suddenly she's knocked flat on her back, the breath pressed out of her. One of the griffons came to the rescue at the same time and bowled her over in the process: Artichoke, Ellie's special favourite.

A rough wheeze. The griffon is eyeing her, and it's making her nervous. "The fuck is wrong with you–"

She was helping!!

"You shut up!" This is stupid. They're havingt the stupidest of all arguments while they fight undead monsters. Her magic continues to flash through the darkness, each one temporarily illuminating the space outside the firelight, revealing the shambling form of monsters each time. She hits one in the chest and pitches it backwards, but it begins to pull itself up to its feet again.

"Ellie?!" All she knows is that there's a scuffle by the griffons, silently hopes that Blanche is still okay.

Both Ellie and the corpse go down in a tangled heap in the slick, cold mud, and after a horrible second alongside the heavy scrambling of griffons and curses and thrown magical bursts, Ellie draws a pained breath.

"Motherfucker," she hisses out, shoving the now-limp corpse off of her and reaching up to massage at her throat. Artichoke clicks his beak, looking from Abby on the ground back to Ellie, before his bird-brain catches up to the fact that he was, in fact, not helping.

He gives a forlorn little peep as Ellie struggles to her feet, glowering at the corpse on the ground, and staggers over to reach down and haul Abby to her feet.

"Alive," she rasps to Glimmer, while throwing Artichoke a severe look-

Unfortunately, she's not very good at hiding her wild urge to laugh, and her expression falters. She comes off like a parent attempting to scold a toddler for doing something both ill-advised and extremely funny.

(Meanwhile, Blanche screeches and bounds towards the corpses harassing Glimmer. The real hero here.)

Abby nearing the end of her rope with the griffons. Even Blanche, bounding away, screeches a little too loud for her liking, and she bristles when Ellie reaches out, but refrains from slapping her hand away so there's that. Everybody please clap. For her efforts, Ellie receives a disgruntled mutter of, "My ass hurts," instead of a thank you.

Thankfully, the bodies are thinning out. Blanche took out a fair amount of them by knocking them down like skittles.

Abby, stomping over to check, drives the heel of her boot hard into the brittle neck segments to make sure none of them think about getting back up again. She's panting, braid lashing with every movement.

"You good?" Panting, to Glimmer, who seems more or less unharmed.

Blanche comes to the rescue of her rider with aplomb, striking at zombies with claw and beak and helping to give Glimmer more space. Glim backs herself up towards the griffon, blasting away with staff and spell until one of the corpses trying to close on her seem eager to get back up again. She leans against the griffon and takes a breath, burying her face against its fur and feathers. The others are speaking up, indicating they're still in one piece.

"...Yeah. Yeah. Are there more?" She asks, exhausted and soaked by the rain. Good thing she brought a spare undershirt.

It's over quickly, going from crackling blasts of magic and rough ragged breaths to the chilly silence other than the hissing rain around them.

All the corpses are dead again, laying inert in the mud, and Ellie gives a shudder, kicking one back into the swamp. It bubbles ominously, and Ellie glares after it.

"I'm not seeing anything else," she confirms, heading over to Glimmer to lay a hand on her shoulder, reassuring.

"Abby, where'd those things come from? Anything trigger it?"

Yeah, what the fuck are they supposed to do with all of these bodies. Abby nudges a skull with her boot cautiously, and parts it completely from the spine. The sight makes her feel kind of sick. The skeletons have a stink, probably from all the mud, and rot.

"No clue." She's still staring at the skull. The wide, gaping mouth, full of teeth. "Appeared out of nowhere. My shard didn't even ping." So it's nothing to do with a Rift. It's just a... normal walking murderous skeleton.

A frown. "Maybe they saw the fire." She's reluctant to put it out. It's cold out here.

Glimmer slumps against Ellie a little, despite the dampness induced by the rain.

"It better not be the fire. I need the fire. Ugh." She looks down at herself.

"I'm never gonna be dry again, I can feel it," Glimmer mutters and gives a miserable groan as if she might want to just flop over in the mud right here.

"Half of them don't even have eyes though! How can they see anything?!"

"Mmm."

Ellie curls her arm around the back of Glimmer's shoulders, holding her against her side, pressing her lips together. She's gone serious. Even though this is kind of ridiculous, something about this doesn't sit right with her.

"If it was the fire, then why didn't they come earlier?"

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