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fandomhigh2020-04-09 12:38 am
arboreal_priestess) wrote in fandomhigh2020-04-09 12:38 am
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The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Thursday, Per 2
Prom was tomorrow, so Liam and Verity figured a class spent fighting things would be a good idea to help work off any potential nervous energy.
Walking into the Danger Shop, the class would find themselves on a train station platform while a giant steam locomotive - the Southern Pacific Railway's darling flagship train, The Flying Pussyfoot - idled next to it. Porters bustled back and forth with luggage, while passengers lined up to board, laughing and talking and checking their belongings. They were all dressed in clothing fashionable nearly a hundred years ago. Well, not their teachers, one of whom was a calm spot in the chaos of the station, while the other was drinking coffee like she was in a competition to reach the bottom first.
Don't judge her. Her or her wonderful, life-giving coffee.
(Liam was absolutely judging her, but he'd claim he had a special husbandly dispensation that permitted him to do so.)
Verity and Liam nodded at the class in greeting just as the conductor shouted, "All aboard!"
"Well, you heard the man," Verity said. "Don't wanna get left behind." No matter what car the students entered, they'd all find themselves in the same private, first-class carriage, with amenities straight out of the late 1920s. There was a man napping in a seat, one who bore a startling resemblance to their teacher's little sister, though only Liam could appreciate that. Verity paid him no mind. With a heavy chug, the train started moving, building up speed and soon leaving the station behind, pulling out into the lovely, open plains of middle America. "So, back when train travel was a lot more common, sometimes trains would just vanish," she said, gesturing for everyone to take a seat. "Hard to imagine several tons of iron and tens of hundreds of people just disappearing, but it happened, from time to time. Some of them certainly had terrestrial reasons for leaving from one station and not making it to the next, but not all." She used her best 'spooky' voice, she added, "They called these disappearances 'Hell-bound trains,' saying that the weight of the sin of the people aboard was enough to pull it down to Hell."
Verity, it was prom, not Halloween. Maybe put down the coffee.
There was a flash outside and suddenly the golden plains were gone, replaced by a blasted wasteland beneath a bloody sky. The distant mountains remained, but they had been transformed, going from a comforting fence against the sky to a virtual wall of what looked very much like heaped-up bone. "Not entirely true," Liam said, picking up the narrative.
"Trains, because they have such a heavy weight of iron and go at such a high speed, can tear holes in the thin spots between dimensions, kind of like throwing a rock through damp tissue. That might not be so bad, except there are inhabitants in those border regions and those inhabitants aren't very nice."
Just then, the door to their compartment was torn off its hinges with a violent bang and a squat, hairless humanoid biped slouched inside. It was hairless with four arms, large claws, and a mouth so full of needle-like teeth that it couldn't close properly. The creature was like a moving square of muscle: solid, and very dense. It lumbered towards them, arms outstretched to rend until a single shot from their teacher's gun stopped it in its tracks. It slumped sideways, the hole in its forehead leaking an oddly-colored fluid that was most assuredly not blood as they recognized it. "So, what we know about border imps is sadly, not much, save what we've observed during fights. They're a lesser form of demon who are attracted to iron--which is why they swarm trains. They eat meat, including humans, and cannot survive beyond the borders of their own dimensions long. Individuals of four genders have been observed: male, female, neuter, and what seems to be a secondary male form in which the penis is bifurcated in a manner similar to that of the koala. We do not know if this is a mutation or a natural sexual form and it doesn't really matter. Young border imps have never been observed, but this could mean that they grow to adult size rapidly, rather than signalling a mammalian 'child' phase. To be quite honest, we just don't know." Which made Verity sigh with regret. She hated not knowing things.
Did Liam's customary scowl deepen just a hair as Verity spoke? Possibly.
"But what you need to know for today's lesson?" he said, "If you must kill one, use silver. It's the only way to be sure. Even with the head fully removed, the body of the border imp has been known to continue fighting. Magic also works, if you have it," Hi, Nina! "And fire hurts them, but will not kill them. Still if all you have is some silverware from the dining room and you need time to hack through its neck, burning will buy you that time - assuming you don't set anything else on fire." Screams started echoing up and down the train. "When trains would break through the dimensional barriers, the common modus operandi for the train personnel was to protect the conductor for long enough to get the train from one edge of the border dimension to the other and hope that some of the passengers survived. If the passengers did, they'd be paid handsomely for their silence, if they didn't--well, no one would be asking them what happened anyway. So today, your job is to hunt down the imps on the train and keep them from eating as few passengers as possible. Feel free to turn anything you can find into a weapon, though you won't be able to take any of the imps out without silver."
And there was plenty of silver around if they knew where to look, including a car carrying silver from the US Mint if they felt like searching around. Weapons were also available, whether they wanted real ones or create something makeshift from their surroundings. "Don't worry about protecting the livestock car," Verity added. "My great-grandma's in there with knives and a hankering to kill anything that might hurt her precious horse, Baby. Otherwise, unless you have questions--" she shooed them all away. "Go hit stuff."
Walking into the Danger Shop, the class would find themselves on a train station platform while a giant steam locomotive - the Southern Pacific Railway's darling flagship train, The Flying Pussyfoot - idled next to it. Porters bustled back and forth with luggage, while passengers lined up to board, laughing and talking and checking their belongings. They were all dressed in clothing fashionable nearly a hundred years ago. Well, not their teachers, one of whom was a calm spot in the chaos of the station, while the other was drinking coffee like she was in a competition to reach the bottom first.
Don't judge her. Her or her wonderful, life-giving coffee.
(Liam was absolutely judging her, but he'd claim he had a special husbandly dispensation that permitted him to do so.)
Verity and Liam nodded at the class in greeting just as the conductor shouted, "All aboard!"
"Well, you heard the man," Verity said. "Don't wanna get left behind." No matter what car the students entered, they'd all find themselves in the same private, first-class carriage, with amenities straight out of the late 1920s. There was a man napping in a seat, one who bore a startling resemblance to their teacher's little sister, though only Liam could appreciate that. Verity paid him no mind. With a heavy chug, the train started moving, building up speed and soon leaving the station behind, pulling out into the lovely, open plains of middle America. "So, back when train travel was a lot more common, sometimes trains would just vanish," she said, gesturing for everyone to take a seat. "Hard to imagine several tons of iron and tens of hundreds of people just disappearing, but it happened, from time to time. Some of them certainly had terrestrial reasons for leaving from one station and not making it to the next, but not all." She used her best 'spooky' voice, she added, "They called these disappearances 'Hell-bound trains,' saying that the weight of the sin of the people aboard was enough to pull it down to Hell."
Verity, it was prom, not Halloween. Maybe put down the coffee.
There was a flash outside and suddenly the golden plains were gone, replaced by a blasted wasteland beneath a bloody sky. The distant mountains remained, but they had been transformed, going from a comforting fence against the sky to a virtual wall of what looked very much like heaped-up bone. "Not entirely true," Liam said, picking up the narrative.
"Trains, because they have such a heavy weight of iron and go at such a high speed, can tear holes in the thin spots between dimensions, kind of like throwing a rock through damp tissue. That might not be so bad, except there are inhabitants in those border regions and those inhabitants aren't very nice."
Just then, the door to their compartment was torn off its hinges with a violent bang and a squat, hairless humanoid biped slouched inside. It was hairless with four arms, large claws, and a mouth so full of needle-like teeth that it couldn't close properly. The creature was like a moving square of muscle: solid, and very dense. It lumbered towards them, arms outstretched to rend until a single shot from their teacher's gun stopped it in its tracks. It slumped sideways, the hole in its forehead leaking an oddly-colored fluid that was most assuredly not blood as they recognized it. "So, what we know about border imps is sadly, not much, save what we've observed during fights. They're a lesser form of demon who are attracted to iron--which is why they swarm trains. They eat meat, including humans, and cannot survive beyond the borders of their own dimensions long. Individuals of four genders have been observed: male, female, neuter, and what seems to be a secondary male form in which the penis is bifurcated in a manner similar to that of the koala. We do not know if this is a mutation or a natural sexual form and it doesn't really matter. Young border imps have never been observed, but this could mean that they grow to adult size rapidly, rather than signalling a mammalian 'child' phase. To be quite honest, we just don't know." Which made Verity sigh with regret. She hated not knowing things.
Did Liam's customary scowl deepen just a hair as Verity spoke? Possibly.
"But what you need to know for today's lesson?" he said, "If you must kill one, use silver. It's the only way to be sure. Even with the head fully removed, the body of the border imp has been known to continue fighting. Magic also works, if you have it," Hi, Nina! "And fire hurts them, but will not kill them. Still if all you have is some silverware from the dining room and you need time to hack through its neck, burning will buy you that time - assuming you don't set anything else on fire." Screams started echoing up and down the train. "When trains would break through the dimensional barriers, the common modus operandi for the train personnel was to protect the conductor for long enough to get the train from one edge of the border dimension to the other and hope that some of the passengers survived. If the passengers did, they'd be paid handsomely for their silence, if they didn't--well, no one would be asking them what happened anyway. So today, your job is to hunt down the imps on the train and keep them from eating as few passengers as possible. Feel free to turn anything you can find into a weapon, though you won't be able to take any of the imps out without silver."
And there was plenty of silver around if they knew where to look, including a car carrying silver from the US Mint if they felt like searching around. Weapons were also available, whether they wanted real ones or create something makeshift from their surroundings. "Don't worry about protecting the livestock car," Verity added. "My great-grandma's in there with knives and a hankering to kill anything that might hurt her precious horse, Baby. Otherwise, unless you have questions--" she shooed them all away. "Go hit stuff."
Sign In
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Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
Re: Sign In
[I almost signed in as Nell Armstrong. Why? I have no idea.]
Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
Heh heh. Bifurcated.
Re: Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
She was also bouncing a little, where she stood, because yes, fighting class!
Even if, like, the silver thing was going to put a bit of a crimp in her plans.
Temporarily. She could work around it.
Fighting class! Fighting class!
Wait! Wait wait wait! She had a question and up went Nina's hand excitedly.
"What about bludgeoning them with silver??????????????????????"
Re: Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
Re: Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
They all knew she used magic heavily.
"So, like, if someone is capable of bludgeoning a human's head clean off their shoulders," she said finally, one hand fingering her bookbelt with its romance books tightly bound in it. "Would that translate to a broken neck on these creatures?????????????????????"
Asking for science.
And because. Uh. Well. Nina was a lot stronger than she looked.
Re: Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
And she'd never seen her grandfather fight a border demon, since Revenants didn't take trains very often.
"I would guess probably, but to still try to focus the attacks on the back or the side of the head just to be sure. Even if it doesn't translate out to a broken neck, odds are good that it might crush a skull, particularly the more fragile sides."
Re: Listen to the (Very Long) Lecture
Today was the best!
"So, like, I guess we'll find out how effect it'll be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Go Kill Some Border Imps
Alternately, if you're not one for fighting, feel free to mod trying to protect a slew of panicked humans! Again, you do you.
Re: Go Kill Some Border Imps
Nina's first order of business wasn't too exciting--and probably slightly surprising given her questions in class--but she hid for the first five, ten minutes of class where she could properly scribble out a spell that would do what she wanted it to do to her bookbelt.
Then, when her spell had been cast and her bookbelt was no longer just normal library books but instead silver-coated library books complete with the belt itself having been turned into a chain with as high a silver content that she could get without compromising the strength of it--which wasn't very; silver sucked for this--Nina came out of hiding and got to work.
She was reckless in combat but it was the kind of reckless that spoke of someone who knew what they were doing and what risks they were willing to take. (Which was, admittedly, probably more than her teachers wanted her to, especially since it led to more than a few hits being taken by herself!)
Today Nina was eschewing magic in favour of attempting to beat the shit out of the border imps with a silvered-up collection of romance books wrapped in a belt.
She couldn't bludgeon their heads literally off their bodies like she could a human.
But it was more effective than it had any right to be, as she spun into the fray with a lot more strength than a delicate, dainty-looking school girl ought to have. As class went on, it got more effective still as she figured out the best spots to hit them and how much force was needed to ensure their skulls were crushed thoroughly if she couldn't get the angle right to break their necks.
This? This was the best!
By the time class was over she was rather bruised, sweat-soaked, and thoroughly disheveled.
And beaming brilliantly.
Re: Go Kill Some Border Imps
Re: Go Kill Some Border Imps
Was that Nina's gleeful shriek of approval from across a good part of the train?
Yes, yes it was!
Talk To Your Teachers
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
"I still don't really understand why silver's so effective," he complained. "It's a terrible material to make bullets out of, for one." And not just because of the cost. And yet... it was hard to argue with results.
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
He was deeply offended by its efficacy, to be sure.
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
Marriage was for trolling.
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
So romantic. Nina would be delighted, no doubt.
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
Re: Talk To Your Teachers
He knew she was teasing, and that there were no secret other-husbands that she was hiding. Hence why the scowl was somewhat exaggerated.
OOC
Re: OOC
Re: OOC
Re: OOC
Re: OOC
Yes, I absolutely did.
Re: OOC
But I'm maaaaybe a little biased! A little!