T - Kari, Uny, Vyn, -----

[Vyn]

Kama rattled off her ideas as she worked and Nico found himself smiling a little at the sight. It was the most she'd said since they'd formed this little ragtag group and, honestly, he was quite pleased to see her confidence increasing a little.

Suddenly the lock popped open. (Rolled a 6)

Nico opened his mouth to celebrate their victory but all that came out was a high-pitched squeal of terror for in that moment the door exploded open, throwing both girls back, and a thing erupted from it. For the briefest moment a small voice in the back of his head muttered 'thank god we didn't light the door on fire' before everything dissolved into a puddle of terror.

Viola and Kama had flown past him and Nico was very obviously the deer in the metaphorical spotlight. He stood stock-still, four little eyes wide as he glanced between the fallen women (was Viola on fire?!?!), and began to cry.

His ankle had been bothering him ever since he woke up. He was weak. He was useless. He would break. Tears flooded down his cheeks but, at what may have been the last minute, he dodged (13) and sprinted (14) desperately toward the door the beast had just come from.

"Please stop! We don't mean any harm!" He called out behind him as he ran.

Please, he begged every fiber of the universe around him, let this all be some horrible misunderstanding. And, if it wasn't, let the terrifying thing be stupid enough to be lead back into its cell so that he could slam the door on it.

[Kari Muffin]

Kama was bring up terrifyingly valid points that were feeding into Viola's mild paranoia. Shopping. why had this all stemmed from a shopping trip?

The sound of the pop caused the deer to perk with joy. Her mouth was ready to open with an exclamation, but she was suddenly not where she was supposed to be and sailing through the air. Suits!

The deer scrambled for some sort of footing (16), her hooves scratching the ground and bringing her to a tumbling roll. Oh suits, that hurt. And still hurt. Why did it still hurt? She was on fire!

A little shriek escaped her as she rolled about to put the fire out (16), it wasn't anything too serious, thank the suits. But there were other things happening. Crap, what had thrown them so far? SUITS NICO!

The deer pulled herself to her feet (13) as she watched the monstrous thing and Nico. She could feel panic seeping into her as she frantically tried to grab the torch (8). When her panic and shaking prevented her from doing that, she screamed at the monster. Maybe it would confuse it and Nico could get out of the line of fire?

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing! You should be grateful we unlocked the door for you!" Viola shouted, trying to sound demanding and indignant. Her violent shaking in terror prevented that.

[Unyko]

Making eye contact with something lacking discernible eyes was another one of those life experiences Kama did not ever hope to achieve. The fact that it moved was alarming enough. She paused in her lock picking, or she would have, if the lock had not chosen that moment to click open.

Even with some form of advance warning, Kama was just as surprised as the other two when the thing hanging from the ceiling burst out towards them, attempted to leap away from Viola's back before the deer woman could land on top of her. (15) The thing was then suddenly charging at Nico, with the poor boy fleeing before it. If he got too far away from the torch, he wouldn't be able to see where he was going, and that wouldn't be a good thing.

Kama was just trying to figure out how to fix this problem when she noticed Viola had landed awkwardly with the torch and was not on fire. Before she could summon up some water to douse the flames, however, the deer was rolling to put them out herself.

And then Viola was shouting at the thing. Huh. That could work. She raised her voice to the creature, too, and sprinted to try and catch up (14) and cut between it and Nico. (12) "Hey, I'm the one who opened the door. Get over here and chase me!" At least I can see in the dark and won't run into any walls, was her unspoken conclusion to that thought.

[Nathalia]

The thing looked in the low light, to be a mass of conjoined roots, tentacles, and purple-ish plant flesh.
Whipping out at top speed, it flung itself at Nico, seeming undisturbed by sounds or sights, focused on the boy, wrapped around his body, and lifted him into the air, squeezing tightly enough to bruise.
Three more thick structures shot out of the door, seemingly made of layers of wrapped roots and foliage.
One goes right for Vio!
The other snaps around Kama's foot and squeezes, trying to drag her back toward the room.

[Vyn]

Everything seemed to happen simultaneously in slow motion and fast forward. He was running, the girls were screaming, and then suddenly he was not running. In that second he wasn't entirely aware that he'd been captured, far more focused on the fact that two more things had burst forth from the room and that they all looked like strange constructs of fleshy root. Ew.

And then he was being squished.

Instantly the world was back in full motion and his ribs and, blast it, everything else, was filled with a horrendous, crushing pain. A strangled gasp escaped him as he writhed pathetically, trying to free himself from the constricting roots. (8)

Roots.

Fire.

"BURN IT!" He shrieked, or was it a wheeze? He could barely hear himself over the panicked thud of his heart and the rushing of blood in his ears. "Set it all on bloody fire!!!"

Thrashing there, trying his best to fight and yet not wound himself (15), Nico wondered what he'd done to deserve this. He was a good boy, always did as his parents asked and never stepped out of line, and yet here he was being crushed by a plant monster in the middle of a sewer. The very least the universe could have done for him was to have made the monster out of cheese, then at least he could die with some form of cruel, ironic comedy.

[Unyko]

Well, the sewer mutant had a proverbial face (or rather tentacles), now, not that Kama was in much of a position to admire it. Or even really fully realize what it was she was looking at. Because then there were suddenly more of them, and one had lassoed her foot and was drawing her back in towards the door she had just opened.

That wasn't gonna happen. Her first reaction was to kick and flail at the root with all three of her other paws and pry at it with her claws (11), and then her adrenaline-charged brain suggested she throw her only potentially offensive ability at it; water. It probably wouldn't work, but she had little to lose at this point, and attempted to put as much force as possible into the gallon of water she splashed just above where it looped around her ankle. (16) Even if that didn't do much more than distract the thing (or just moisten it), she might be able to wriggle free of it's grip (2?). She was fairly good at that, when she wasn't being dragged through the sewers to certain death-by-plantmonster.

And somewhere, buried deep at the back of her mind, drowned out by all sorts of other more pressing thoughts and emotions, was the small hint of curiosity. What were these things? Why were they down here, in the sewers, locked in a workroom?

Nico's shout echoed through the tunnel, but there was little she could do about it. She didn't have the fire. But maybe, if she couldn't disentangle herself, and if she reached the doorway before her two companions, she could snag the edge of the still-open door and pull it closed after her (12). That'd at least make it more difficult to pull her new friends in, too.

[Kari Muffin]

Suits the door had been locked to prevent the things for inside there from getting out hadn't it?! The deer could feel the panic growing as Nico was scooped up by the terrifying creature. She was still the furthest one away from the entire mess, and she was the most fighting capable of everyone.

This was bad. Oh so very bad. If they were up against a person she could probably handle herself, but not MONSTERS.

Her eyes widened with terror as more things came out of the room. And what about Kama?! She was in trouble too! Then Nico was screaming about burning it.

Fire, that was always a good solution. Swallowing her terror the deer snatched up the torch in her mouth (13) and headed towards the monster that was coming after her in a preemptive strike (7).

She brandished the torch in hopes to catch the closet bit of the plant things on fire (19). Though if she had put herself out with relative ease, what about these plant monsters? And what if Nico was accidentally burned if these things went up like fireworks?

Not like she could think of a back up plan in a situation like this.

[Nathalia]

Though Nico managed to free his ribs from the grip of the freakish monstrosity, the rest of his body remained held fats. His hooves struck thick veins in the plant-matter and a thick, glutenous ooze seeped out, smelling strongly of rather coppery tomatoes.
The same happened for Kama as she clawed at the thing, but did not succeed in getting herself loos. Instead, she was dragged into the doorway and hefted onto her back, halfway off her feet as the tendrils began pulling her slowly up toward the ceiling.
She can now see that it looks to be a thick section of conjoined roots, growing out of a giant, crumbling hole in the ceiling.
The crumpled figure in the corner, she can now see a little more closely as well.
Aside from a long, scaly tail sticking out from under the long cloak, though...she can't tell if the person is alive or dead. Shame she couldn't pull the door shut, the thick tendrils blocked her ability to do so.

The vines actually seemed to hesitate for a second when Viola brandished the flames at it.
Then, they wrapped around her, torch and all and hefted her bodily up into the air.
Within 15 seconds, though, it abruptly dropped her a good 5 feet onto her back. The torch hit a puddle and went out and the vines thrashed slowly...flames crawling up the leaves and settling into the bark-like substance on the roots...
Oh dear...better get your friends and anything important out of that room quickly!

[Vyn]

Nico was able to suck in a deep breath of relief as he freed his torso, but he was still stuck fast and flailing. Somewhere along the way the tears had stopped falling, fear turning steadily into desperation and desperation into resolve.

He didn't want to die like this!

Catching sight of the wound he'd already gouged into the thing, Nico plunged his hoof against it over and over again. (8) It wasn't the best idea but it was something and, if it was a slow death, he might even be able to nick his way free. With what strength he could muster, Nico put all efforts into fighting and wiggling. His wings flapped desperately and he stabbed out with fore and hind hooves. Something would have to strike... and Suits help him if he fell apart along the way. (3)

From the corner of his eye he saw Kama dragged past into the room but what really caught his attention was Viola being hefted off the ground... and then suddenly dropped as her beast caught flame.

Oh good. That was a weakness... if only the torch wasn't out now as well.

"They dragged Kama into the room, Viola!" At least he was out here, flailing in the growing light of the burning beast, but he couldn't see what was happening to their Selkie friend.

[Unyko]

Finally made absolutely aware of the situation she was in, Kama wriggled and writhed for all she was worth, stretching her lean body and holding her breath to try and make herself smaller in order to escape. (6)

When she caught sight of the prone form, once again, she nearly lost hope. Did the plant monster get them too? Or maybe it was their pet, and they were just sleeping?

"Help!" she cried, between bouts of thrashing, "Anyone... help!" She doubted anyone could help her, though; her friends had their own problems to deal with, and besides, she was panting so hard her voice was only barely audible to her own ears. (7?) Or maybe that was because her heart was beating so loud she could barely hear anything else. Even the sounds her claws made as she tore at the tendrils that bound her were muffled, though the smell it gave off as it oozed tree-blood was at least indication that her claws had hit their mark.. at least some of the time.

Another scent intruded upon her senses. then. Smoke? Oh, rain and rivers, had Viola managed to set it on fire? Maybe that would distract her captor (who she was now convinced was part of some giant plant, bent on catching and eating anything it could get its roots on) just enough to loosen its grip on her. Once again, she contorted her lithe little frame into any shape she could think of to free herself. (17)