August 2021 - Stuck in the Nets

[staymods]

Stuck in the Nets

The strange whispers at night have persisted throughout the month of August, only growing stronger with time. Whatever is out there, it's searching for something. Or perhaps someone?

But that is a secondary worry today. The biggest problem on hand is that something large appears to have gotten caught in one of the sea nets. It's hard to tell what it is at a distance, but it's trashing about and getting tangled up in the lines. Something needs to be done about this before the creature destroys too much of the netting.

But also, Otherworlders should move cautiously. As they go to investigate, they'll find that the air is still and lacks the ambient sounds usually found in nature. There are no bird calls, no buzzing insects, nothing. Just the sounds of splashing.

Comments

[aono]

I guess that's why they're so serious about keeping 'em away from the island. Imagine if the voice was even closer.

[Rin counts himself as lucky that he has experience with not listening to whispers like that. Thanks, demons of his world.]

But if we're all immune then infection's not a risk, right? We just have to go out there and stamp 'em out.

[maidofmistakes]

Um... some of us aren't, though. [She sheepishly raises a hand.] At least, they said I wasn't when they put us all through tests. I guess it's not a normal virus, since I'm not supposed to be able to catch Earth diseases.

[ghoulserrand]

I don't know...that I'm immune either.

[It doesn't really matter if he is, but still. He's not angry, but he is frowning.]

Even for... the immune... infection is... always a risk... Even if you... don't turn... you can get sick... in other ways... or simply... be killed. Being eaten is... still a bad way to go.

[He'll leave the stamping out thing alone. It's not his place to argue that. Just pointing out the risk.]

[aono]

[Oh. Welp.]

But if it's just one thing even I could go over quickly and take care of it, maybe? I fight demons all the time back home, this should be easy.

['Should be'. But he doesn't know that for certain.]

[ghoulserrand]

No.

[That time, his voice comes out so firm he actually has to cough after. Give him a minute.]

I... don't know what... demons are like... but you don't... understand the dead. These dead. It takes... one mistake... Never assume... It'll be easy... And especially... don't go alone.

[maidofmistakes]

I really hate to say it, but he might be right. I should be a lot more powerful, but any time I try to use my powers here, it only lasts a little while before I get worn out. Back home, I could lift a plane and fly it halfway around the world in a few hours. Now I pick up a couple of trees and take them to town, and I'm wiped. The same might've happened to you.

[aono]

Yeah, but...

[He makes an annoyed noise.]

We can't just leave it out there, right? It's just gonna keep trying to talk to us.

[ghoulserrand]

[He glances over at Faust, then sighs uneasily.]

That's... true... the dead don't... tire the same... if there's other food... they might leave... but there's a lot here.

[And boy he hopes he doesn't sound hungry when he says that. He definitely sounds tired.]

Still... that doesn't mean... charging to meet it...

[maidofmistakes]

But then what else do we do?

[relictus]

We ignore it.

We're on this island surrounded by nets for a reason. It shouldn't be able to reach us here. If we try to go out and find it, that's troll territory. For all we know there could be any number of them out there waiting for us. With our limited powers, it could be suicide.

[He sighs.]

I know it may be frustrating, but this is bigger than just one voice. There are no good options, but staying here and waiting it out is the safest one.

[In theory.]

[aono]

Okay, so we leave them be for now.

[He hates this option but he's also just barely not stupid enough to go fighting these things alone. He'll wait until others are willing to back him up.]

But they can talk to us in our minds, and that's definitely not good. What's this thing protecting us? A 'Lunti'?

[A Luonto, Rin.]

[ghoulserrand]

[His shoulders droop a little at Faust's answer. Even if he knew it was coming and knows it's the right one, it's still hard to swallow. But he's not going to argue it, especially in front of the kids.]

Souls... This world... gave us souls... [Or, more than they had anyway.] Some kind of... magic... if you don't have any... already...

Faust saw... a cat... I saw... a little bug. [He curls his hands to show a tiny shape.] Somehow they... made the troll stop...

[maidofmistakes]

We must all have different ones. I wonder what they do to them?

[relictus]

They appeared before us after we were struck with the compulsion to move toward the voice. Needless to say, that sort of mental influence can be very dangerous, and we can't assume these Luonto can always protect us. Beyond that, there isn't much I can tell you about them beyond what Mauri was able to tell me... [Sure would be helpful to have an actual mage around...]

He did say that the other two souls are called Henki and Itse- a person's life force and personality, respectively.

[maidofmistakes]

I see... The same thing happened to me. I tried resisting it myself, but I couldn't hold out on my own. There's a meditation art they used on my planet to resist mental suggestion, but I never thought I'd need to learn it.

[ghoulserrand]

It might not... have helped...

[He says it only to keep her from beating herself up over it.]

This is a different... world... it's got... different rules... no one had powers... on my world. The best thing... would be to learn... how things work here.

[argentlarvae]

We need to be able to protect ourselves if one gets through the nets somehow.

[ghoulserrand]

[Teo nods.]

Something... long-distance... is best. You don't want to... get close... to something infectious. I have my arrows... I know some... of you have powers... do we have anything...else?

[argentlarvae]

I have my sword. [Cyan says, putting a hand on the silver blade at his side.]

I don't know if it works on trolls, but it's what we use to kill larvae in my country, and they're a lot like trolls.

[maidofmistakes]

We're gonna have to try with whatever we have. And it might not be as much as we've got at home, or as strong, but I think we can manage.

[ghoulserrand]

Sorry... did you say... Larvae?

[Trolls, Larvae... The name for his kind of creature keeps getting worse and worse.]

[argentlarvae]

[Cyan nods.]

They're monsters made from dead humans, they come out at night and eat human souls.

[ghoulserrand]

That's... horrifying...

[A shame he's in front of a lot of people right now or he'd say to Faust, for the record, I don't do that.]

[argentlarvae]

It is, but that's why we have people trained to fight them! [He's cheerful about it.]

And they must have ways of fighting trolls here, has anybody asked them about it?

[maidofmistakes]

I know they only send immune people out, but other than that...