Tsuiraku-town, part 2

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade shifted in her sleep, drifting inside an unpleasant dream. She sat on a horse with a revolver in her hand, breathing out the frost of a cold winter morning. The landscape was familiar, a barren scene laced with dirt tracks that tugged at memories buried deeply. As Jade looked around she saw that she was flanked by four other riders, two to either side, all converging the aim of the firearms they held on a golden coach that sat gleaming on the road in front. Bullets tore through the air with a noise like screaming. Jade tried to yell 'stop' but her voice was drowned out in the chaos. She saw her own arm extend and pull the trigger of her gun. As the fresh fire struck the coach it seemed to pulse with darkness. It became a cloud which expanded and rushed towards her. She drew a breath to scream.

Jade sat up on the mattress with a low cry. Quickly clamping a hand over her mouth so no-one would hear. She screwed her eyes up tight and took a few deep breaths.

"Leo." She whispered the name through the hand, took one last effort to compose herself and opened her eyes.

Jade's immediate thought was that she was still dreaming. The darkness of the basement had become faintly illuminated, a blue hue that seemed to thicken the texture of it and make it into a living thing. There was a faint, almost imperceivable pulse to the light that picked out the edge of the crates Jade had slept behind. She remained still for a moment, listening. The thought passed through her mind that the attack on the vineyard had begun.

'But if that's true, why is it so quiet?'

The basement was too cramped to swing her sword effectively. She drew the hunting knife that lay strapped against her shin and sat up into a crouch. She took another, quieter breath and began slowly creeping from the crates to other cover, moving towards where the light shone brightest.

[Sareth]

The smile slipped from Jamie's face and she nodded towards the building. "Shack's glowing. Is that normal?" She shook her head. "Okay, that may have been a silly question. So... Shoot first then ask questions? Or just shoot. I need to know if I'm aiming for knees or heads." She cocked her rifle.

[ComradeHavok]

Spoiler: show

A wicked grin appeared on the normally happy-go-lucky face of Mouse. In one smooth movement, she unwrapped the cloth she had hastily wrapped around her rifle. In the space of a few seconds, Mouse had a rifle levelled with Mr. Silver's head. Then without hesitating, she pulled the trigger and splattered the poor sod's brains across the walls. She then ejected the spent shell from her rifle, and looked at Gault with a mixture of satisfaction and guilt. Her expression suggested that she suddenly wasn't sure if she was supposed to do that.

[Hours]

Spoiler: show

Gault could only sit there amongst the screaming and running as the inn quickly evacuated itself, dabbing away a bit of blood and grey matter from his cheek as a single large shard of glass fell out of the shattered window, he looked out to Mouse and gave her a flat stare which wasn't particularly angry, nor really all that happy. Behind him there were footsteps coming down the stairs and the landlord was diving for something under the bar.

That was when things got explody, two men with yuuki staffs thundering down the stairs and blasting the empty half of the room where the corpse of Mr. Silver lay at the table, Gault disappearing in a flash of light.

[Graybeard]

"Okay, that may have been a silly question. So... Shoot first then ask questions? Or just shoot. I need to know if I'm aiming for knees or heads."

"I'm not sure," Ace answered as the glow intensified. "Don't shoot until we know what we're shooting at, and whether to wound or to kill, I don't -- What in Luminosita's name is that?"

He just gaped as a blue-skinned figure emerged from the shack and looked around ... a figure with a skin color, if not exactly physique, that Jamie had seen before.

[Sareth]

Jamie's eyes widened. Then her lips quirked into a smile. Then she giggled in a slightly disturbing way. "OOOOOOOOoooooooooooooh," she said, displaying a remarkable ability at articulating when answering questions about unusual circumstances. "Dibs!"

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade's pulse seemed to quicken with the tiny flashes in the blue light. She made her way to the corner where the main source of it was coming from. Her teeth gritted as her knees took the strain from the uncomfortable method she was using to move, hovering mere inches off the floor. A few moments later she was right next to it, her back pressed against a crate, the pulse intensified. Now she was closer she could pick out a low humming noise. Jade immediately found herself thinking of what had happened back at the shack.

'Wizards again...' she thought, and stole a glance round the corner.

Wrong. But there was something there alright.

A figure stood in the glow of a faint swirl of light, taller than a man and built much broader. It wavered in and out of sight, looking caught in a teleportation attempt put on hold, but Jade immediately recognised it for what it was.

"Golem."

She was aware of her thoughts blurring by, conclusions being chained together and tactics being presented. Her hands moved of their own violation. The knife in her right falling to the floor as the gun cleared leather in the left. She aimed from the hip to minimise drawing time, her left hand fired, her right fanned the trigger. The bangs sounding like cannonfire in the cramped confides of the basement as she shot the weapon empty.

The bullets punched through the magic field of the spell in progress. The blue golem caught inside the field seemed to flash in and out of existence more rapidly as the hum became a drone. Jade quickly made another decision and got the hell out of the way. She turned, skidding, barely making it behind a pair of barrels. As if on cue, the light winked out completely, accompanied by the noise of shattering stone (which was exactly what it was) as the would-be intruder found itself teleported to two places at once. Shards flew through the air, some sticking into the barrels Jade had hidden behind. Gravelly dust settled into her hair. Her head slumped back against the wood as the din died away.

"And all I wanted was a bloody nap."

Jade forced herself back to her feet and walked back to the scene of devastation, making a disapointed noise as she trod in a growing puddle of wine being created by the punctured barrels. A pair of strudy legs, broken off at the knee, stood upright in the corner where the golem had been before, thick parts and pieces scattered all around. Jade studied them with a detached expression on her face, thinking morbidly about what would've happend if a human being had been in the field instead.

"Yeah. I should probably report this."

Of course, given the racket she'd just made Jasmine and Maya were probably already on their way. She scooped up some of the debris and started walking back to the stairs.

[Rainman]

Spoiler: show

Ghaz had been having a lovely few minutes, having convinced Gault to let him hang about outside while the scoundrel conducted his his business. He'd been speaking with a beautiful young lady out behind the back of the inn. So perhaps her voice was a little deep, and her shoulders a little broad, but she was a most charming young woman indeed... they were just in the middle of a most wonderfully involved discussion when a gunshot cracked through the air, accompanied by the tinkling of shattered glass. He paused, as if considering whether or not to bother, but then light and noise assaulted his ears, and his decision was made for him.

"Well... That'll be Bill getting himself in trouble, all right. Looks like we're on the clock now."

The Ghob sighed, apologized, and, not bothering to wipe off the lipstick, adjusted his belt, took a short run and leapt through one of the common room windows.

Glass shattered, making small but harmless nicks in his leathery hide, and Ghaz rolled once before he sprang to his feet. Almost quicker than the eye could follow, he drew his revolver, gunning for the nearest and most obvious targets- two men with distinctive staves, stinking of magic, with their backs to him. He blasted four shots right towards the exposed back of the first, then his other two at the other man- one for the upper right arm, the other for the back of the assailant's knee. Not pausing to take stock of what damage he'd done, the Ghob rolled away to the left, under a table which he promptly upended as impromptu cover before reloading his revolver. A clatter of emptied casings and a speedloader later, Ghaz peered up over the top of the table gun leading, scanning the room to see if anything else was in need of a .44 magnum hollowpoint, delivered Ghaz Express.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Things at the vineyard have gone kind of weird, due in part to my unsuccessful attempt to set something up for a new player to introduce a blue-golem PC. It looks now like that isn't happening, with the result that all the stuff about the blue glow is looking out of place. The following is an attempt to make it make sense again, at the expense of a short-term dislocation or two. Thanks for your help on this, JR...]

Dibs? Ace wondered. What did Jamie want to do with this strange thing? No, maybe best not to think about that. At least she wasn't inclined to blow it away on sight. That was good ... probably.

The blue man turned to face the farmhouse, stopped. Ace waved Jamie to silence; the man seemed to be saying something. "Unit two ... rendezvous ... teleport fail ..." And then it started moving, ponderously slowly, toward the house in the distance. Uh, oh, Ace thought. "We may need to stop that thing," he whispered to Jamie. "What do you know about them? Can we do it?"

Jamie hadn't answered yet, however, when Jade's fusillade resounded around the vineyard.

Ace had rolled into a position of concealment and drawn Jamie's pistol by the time the echoes subsided. This could be bad, he thought; if the blue man-thing had seen them, they were probably dead. He started to aim his gun, for all the good he thought it would do ...

... But suddenly the blue man stopped in his (its?) tracks. "Unit two out of service," it buzzed, almost to itself, its voice more audible now in the shocked silence that followed the gunfire. "Must report ... must report ..." He reversed his field and started moving slowly back toward the shack.

[Sareth]

When the first golem blew up in a hail of gunfire, Jamie swore. Rather loudly, in fact. She had immediately begun searching for targets, and Ace found himself momentarily wondering if he dare suggest that the house was not where any potential targets should have been. Cocking his own borrowed pistol seemed the wiser choice, and so he chose to do so instead.

Fortunately, the wrath of the psychotic underage gun bunny was forstalled when the second golem appeared. Jamie giggled in a disturbing fashion as she saw the thing hesitate. Before anything untoward could happen this time, she shouted out loudly enough to be heard throughout the compound (including inside the shack, to Ace's chagrin) "MINE! ANYONE BLOWS THIS ONE AWAY AND I'LL WEAR THEIR GONADS AS A TROPHY!"

"Jamie Porter! You watch your language, young lady!" Jasmine shouted from the house.

The girl glowered briefly in that direction, then returned her attention to the golem. "Shiny! I can't wait to see what's under the hood." Somehow Ace suspected she wasn't referring to how the golem was animated... "Come here, you beautiful thing..." She stepped out from cover and into the path of the golem.