Solo Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Arch goes out at night and gets a surprise...

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Known as the Celestial Seat, Nyka is a religious city in Northern Sylira. Ruled by four demigods and traversed by a large crevice, the monk-city is both mystical and dangerous. [Lore]

Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on February 27th, 2014, 8:27 pm

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52nd of Winter, 513.

The sun slowly set over the Nykan landscape, bathing the red city in an amber hue that only seemed to enhance every inch of colour until the city itself was the deepest blood-crimson that the squirrel had ever seen. He was currently sitting on one of the higher buildings scattered loosely around the cityscape, perched upon the edge of the highest peak of the slanting roof and with his legs spread to either side, straddling the building itself as he sprawled backwards against a chimney. His paws acted as a makeshift pillow and folded behind his head. It was a good day - although the squirrel found himself almost sad that it had to end here. And it did. He'd been told more than several times by not only citizens and friends but the monks too, to never go outside at night. For whatever reason he couldn't fathom but he decided that it was better not to ask and not to do it. He didn't want to get involved with whatever strange things happened with monks at night. However...

He'd been getting a lot done these past few days. He deserved some time off, didn't he? Monks and others were getting a bit happier with him around! They seemed more accustomed to his presence and... most of all, he wanted to know what would happen after all. What did the monks do in the night that they didn't want anyone to see - did they withhold some ancient secret from the rest of Nyka and the world that they didn't want anyone else to see? It seemed that nobody would be allowed out past dark, like some strange curfew. But the squirrel wouldn't be daunted by such things. He could blend into the darkness seamlessly.. he could sneak all over the city and find out what it was that these monks did. In fact, he could follow them.

As the light slowly faded and the amber light faded away into darkness, even the sky clouding over as its colour washed away into black and deep blues, the squirrel refused to move - if only to watch, carefully, as the monks below went about their final business. Nykan citizens slipped away into the night until he could no longer see any of them, and even some of the monks disappeared as well. Some remained, though - few scouting the walls and the streets. Few that he could follow, as long as he was careful. And as long as he used the rooftops, that could provide a wide view over most of the area and with his small body, he could barely hear the noises he made himself when he jumped from one stone roof to the next. His clay feet only clacked briefly, and even then the sound was muted whenever his clay softened. One of the main issues would be the shadows.. since it was difficult to hide those things. Though, since he was rodent-sized and rodent-shaped, perhaps they'd really misinterpret him for a squirrel or otherwise.

Nevertheless, he picked his target and immediately begun a quiet run after the monk. The cloud and the reigning dark made it difficult for the squirrel to see the monk... but that also meant that it'd be difficult for the monk to see the squirrel, and for that he was happy. In fact, going at such a slow pace over the rooftops almost made the thing too easy. There was no fast pace to keep up with because the monk just strolled along casually - almost as if there was nothing for him to do at all. And that meant that all he had to do was make a quick jump over the rooftop whenever the man wasn't looking his way. And that was just too easy. The only difficulty came when the monk moved off towards one of the bridges - one leading off into the West that he couldn't recall at that moment - and the squirrel found himself forced to depart from his rooftops in favour of the ground. He had to scamper right across the bridge with the hopes that nobody would notice him. After all, being caught near the middle of the city and essentially breaking an unspoken curfew was bound to get him chased out.
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on June 14th, 2014, 1:29 pm

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"Hey! What do you think you're doing out here, at this time?" He should have known someone would notice - it always seemed to happen at the worst times. Perhaps he should have just given up on being sneaky.

The moment one monk shouted, several others rose and turned towards the small squirrel trapped half-way across the bridge. He was trapped between a bunch of rocks and hard places here, with sheer drops on either side and a blockade at either end. There really couldn't be a worse scenario to be in... but even as he begun thinking, he found his limbs overcome with trembling from the building adrenaline.. the rush of the moment. He'd never found himself in a more utterly hopeless situation.. and he knew he could get out of it. Somehow. The best way seemed to be run head-on and work it all out later, though. That was what his mind told him, or the few remaining parts that weren't completely overcome. It sounded like a stupid plan to the rest of his rational mind, with little tactics at all and absolutely no foreplanning, but by God if there wasn't a better time to forget all those things and just go with his heart. Before the rest of his mind could even pick up what was happening, he found his legs already moving on a whim of their own - heading straight towards the small grouping o monks that stood between the squirrel and the West Quarter.

Of course, a lack of planning and preparation took its toll. The moment the first monk of the group of about four or five took a step forwards and readied himself, he panicked and swerved to the right.. which was entirely unneeded because there were monks on the right too. And the left. He just ended up bypassing the first when he took a step forwards, and collided face-first into the second one... which knocked him off his own feet with surprise, and straight into the first. Although, the squirrel was also very dazed at this point; rolling away as fast as he could amidst the frey as the two monks tried to get back to their feet and push each-other away. He succeeded... just about... but now he was in an even worse position than before. The two monks were now behind him, and the other three were in front - those on the other side of the bridge were also crossing it quickly, completely surrounding the squirrel.

For a moment, there was a tense silence. Nobody moved, but all eyes glanced between one monk and the next, and the squirrel over the monks. The air was silent, but so thick with tension that it could be cut down the middle with a knife and served for Sunday dinner. And when it finally broke, all hell broke loose.

One of the three monks that stood before the squirrel lurched forwards with both hands outstretched in a grab, but the squirrel easily ducked and threw himself forwards to land on his front paws and break into a sprint right between the mans hands, and then his legs quickly afterwards. His body collided straight into the other two monks that had stood behind the squirrel, but soon made lunges of their own just seconds after the first. The next two monks were smarter, though - they worked together, and as one kicked out with one foot, the other waited patiently until the squirrel had adjusted his course and jumped to the right. Then, he stomped down quickly and caused the squirrel to make a second, rushed jump that barely succeeded in escaping the blow. One monk would be relatively easy to evade but two would be considerably harder - at least, if he didn't put any thought into what he was doing.

Of course, he was nowhere near a tactical genius. His ideas could only spring up at the moments of dire need, one of which he was currently stuck in. But just like the pile of three monks behind the squirrel, he realized that these two before him could be outsmarted in relatively the same way - by using their attacks against each-other. It was a good idea in theory, all it needed was a decent enactment and he might even be able to outsmart five monks and escape again. Now that'd be something indeed...
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on June 14th, 2014, 4:18 pm

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The squirrel prepared himself, and suddenly lurched forwards. One of the monks again kicked out with his foot but this time he jumped out to the opposite side, underneath the man. The kick that came down got tangled with the other monk and they showed signs of toppling. And that was when the squirrel made his break for freedom. If only he had moved a little faster, or kept a better watch on his surroundings - because the next thing he knew, one of the two monks had stomped down with both feet, cementing his grasp on the bridge, and reached down to grab the squirrel from behind. He'd barely noticed the hand up until it wrapped around his midsection and squeezed a little too hard, distorting his body comically and leaving him squirming like mad. Unfortunately, he couldn't really do anything - they had him at their mercy. He was prepared to get a proper beating.. but it never came. Instead, the other three monks that had quickly rose from their tangled mess dispersed, along with the others at the other side of the bridge. That left the squirrel alone with the remaining two. And they still didn't beat him.

"Come on, we need to get you inside, now." The monks didn't even look at the nearest house, they just opened the door straight away and set the squirrel down inside. Then they both stepped inside afterwards, and one stood guard over the door while the other stood to the side, watching the squirrel. "Now, you need to stay inside, little squirrel, until the sun rises again. You can't go outside during the night, you hear?" He heard, and nodded.. but he didn't understand. And neither were the monks giving any answers - they just stood there, as eternal guardians, watching the squirrel with deep scowls over their faces as usual. Usually when someone did something wrong, they would be beaten for it.. but these two monks weren't. Would the others have beaten him if they'd have gotten their hands on him? Well he supposed not too, because they'd all walked away. If anything, it made the squirrel more interested in what he could find outside at such times.

One thing that stood in his way though, were these two monks. He needed to get out of their sight for a few moments so that he could escape, and find out what was happening. But how? "I... erm... I need to use the toilet." His abrupt blurting made the two give him a rather odd look but eventually the monk standing guard before the door sighed and nodded. Apparently he was being given a leave.. and because they had the door guarded, they thought that he had no escape. Showed just how much they knew.. since they actually thought squirrels used the toilet. What, do they think he shykes clay all the time? No matter, since he was now free to roam around the house. The first thing he did was search for the bathroom, and slip inside. He could practically feel the monks watching him all the time, although he knew he wouldn't have to, for long. And with good reason. As soon as he closed the door behind him, and took a look around the rather cramped room, he saw exactly what he was hoping to see - an open window.

Not nearly wide enough for a human to fit through. But enough to fit a Pycon. Immediately, the squirrel hopped up onto the rim of the toilet, and from there onto the back chamber. Then over to the lip of the sink, and up to the wooden cabinet that had been nailed to one of the walls. And from there, thankfully, he could reach up to the bottom lip of the narrow window. It was on a latch and only opened a very small amount, but as he begun to push against the tiny gap, his body begun to squish down and conform to the slit's width. Of course it meant that he soon sacrificed a lot of his original shape in favour of fitting through the hole but he could reform himself afterwards. His face, and then his chest and neck - even his tail had to go through changes. His arms became smaller but retained just enough clay to continue pushing his body all the way through, until they could no longer reach - and then, he was entirely reliant on contractions in his clay. He felt like a very strange slug.

But, he made it. And eventually, he flopped down onto the cobblestone path just outside the house - a narrow, rather dark alley that he could hide in while he reformed his body and regrew the various parts needed. Arms, legs, tail, face, eyes, claws.. all of it slowly manifested once again from the lump he'd been transformed into, and it took a bit of concentration as well to help speed up the process a little - if only a little. And then, it was back to the rooftops. Using the wall directly opposite the house/prison he'd just broken out of, he could quickly climb on the narrow ledges of imperfectly-placed bricks in order to reach the lip of the rooftop. Finally, now he could find out what the monks were really up to.
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on June 15th, 2014, 4:27 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Suddenly, though, it was as if all the monks had disappeared. He couldn't see a single one. When the squirrel jumped over to the next house with a practiced ease, and from there another two houses down from rooftop to rooftop, he still couldn't see anything. Nothing in the alleys, or in the main streets.. suddenly, he felt incredibly eerie. He didn't know exactly why, but the feeling came as quickly as the shiver that ran down the back of his neck. There shouldn't have been a reason for it though. There was nothing supernatural going on in Nyka as far as the squirrel was concerned. Alright, so there was an incident regarding Kelwyn's Knocker, and there were some weird things going on with the cultists and elsewhere. But the squirrel was a Pycon of reason, and he had absolutely no reason to believe that what these monks could do was anything out of the norm. He wasn't even sure if he'd ever met a monk that could perform magic, let alone make a deal with Eldritch creatures. And all that nonsense with the story that he'd learned in the Hall of Robes with Naia.. that was just a story, after all.

All of this rationalization was doing absolutely nothing to help his anxiety though. If anything, it made him much less confident that actually coming out in the middle of the night was a good thing. Maybe he should have stayed back inside with those other two monks. Or back in the Safehaven Hostel, where he had a nice bed and a comfortable room. He even managed to hop down from the roof, onto a lower balcony and from there down to the street. He could even walk down the street, up to where he was sure he'd managed to escape from. The door handle was too high for the squirrel to reach though - he was essentially trapped, thanks to his escape. An odd thing to think, but something he'd definitely be considering in the future.

The future where he was struggling not to just go insane. He needed to get back to the Hostel, right now. He didn't care what the monks were doing any more, he didn't care if they were sitting down and having tea with Eldritch Horrors. He wanted to go back to the Hostel, he wanted to go to bed, and he wanted to get out of this city as soon as he learned what he wanted, and get back to Syliras. Escape this horror and everything in it - later, he could return when he was a fully-fledged knight and burn this entire city to the ground. Whatever was in this city, it wasn't normal.. it wasn't right. It wasn't Order, he was sure of that - this wasn't the work of a creature that was calm, beneficent.. it wasn't the work of anything that should have existed in this world at all. And as soon as his mind clicked, registered the fact that what was happening here shouldn't have been.. he took no time at all to begin a sprint. More than a sprint - he just ran straight down the streets as fast as he physically could, no longer caring if any monks saw him, or chased him. Which was good, because none saw him anyway.

The squirrel sped around every corner like it would be his last - checking in the windows for signs of light, the rooftops for signs of monks, but nowhere could he find a single living thing. Was it just the squirrel slowly turning more and more paranoid - more and more mental, just from being outside in such a strange time? Or was this really happening? The more questions he asked himself, the worse his condition became. And being the Pycon he was, these questions could never stop. He could finally understand how curiosity killed the cat. Except he was a squirrel. And this curiosity was slowly drowning him, with every air bubble filled with nothing but more questions to sink the squirrel even deeper into the dark abyss that lay beneath him, like a giant rip in the ground that seemed so dark, even in the day, no light could pierce the very bottom. Like a huge.. Aperture...
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on June 15th, 2014, 5:05 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He didn't know why, but the running almost became a blur of movement to even his own eyes. And suddenly, he was on that same bridge as before - one branchig the West to the Celestial. Even from this distance, he could see the Hostel standing proud amongst all the other symmetrical red stone blocks. But there was something horribly wrong - terrifyingly wrong with this situation. He couldn't say what it was, but it made all of the previous experiences bubble down into nothing at all. This overwhelmed them all, and for good reason. Because as he stood on the bridge, he saw it. The sky was pretty cloudless and the moon shone directly over the squirrel and his surroundings in all of Leth's light. Everything seemed completely natural except for the one and only person he'd seen in the past bell. A woman, garbed in nothing but purple. Deep, unbelievably deep purple, standing directly opposite the squirrel on the bridge and staring at him.

The robes wound themselves slowly down her body in what seemed to be ribbons, rather than an actual dress. They made her seem strangely thin, like the woman was malnourished. It wound itself all the way up to her head and formed a strange scarf around the lower portion, and a hood that shrouded the rest in darkness. And she did absolutely nothing. It wasn't a hallucination because right as rain, he could see her standing there. Doing nothing but standing and staring, not even seeming to be breathing. It froze the squirrel still, as chills ran all the way down the length of his back and then back up again. He felt like he should do something at least, but he couldn't. He didn't know why. The shock was just too strong, and he stood dumb. Obviously the woman wasn't a monk, because she was dressed in such monotonous colours that wouldn't usually be seen dead on a normal citizen or a monk. Why was she out in the middle of the night, anyway?

It seemed like the strangest stand-off ever. The longer they stood there.. the longer nothing seemed to happen. Until the squirrel marshaled all of his courage, every bit of strength in his body, and swallowed down his fear. "H... Hello?" Utter silence. Now he really couldn't do anything else. He didn't care if he was being rude, he needed to get out of here. So, he turned and ran as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him. He didn't even bother to look back at the strange woman - he was sure she'd be able to look after herself on a dark night. He couldn't. He needed to escape. In fact, the first thing he did was run straight down the same street he'd just come up from, on all fours and with all of the speed he could possibly muster. He tripped over his own feet more than once and stumbled to a stop, but he didn't take long at all to rouse himself back to all-fours and continue. He needed to get to higher ground, that was all. The first alley was taken, the first wall he could see was scaled, and once he made it onto the roof he just kept running.

He didn't even know in which direction he was running any more. It didn't even matter. As long as he escaped that woman and this city. As long as he made it to safety, whatever safety was. The rooftops once again became a strange blur broken only by his fumblings, while his half-terrified mind tried to pull together enough cogs to keep his feet moving and his body escaping. Leaps that he'd never thought possible before, or were simply passed because they were deemed to difficult and too dangerous were crossed without a seconds notice, and through it all, the squirrel never looked back. When he finally reached the end of the street and found no roof within adequate distance to jump towards, he leaped off the edge of the roof and fell straight down two floors to the ground. There, he rolled over one shoulder the moment his feet touched the ground, breaking up most of the momentum and only distorting his legs a little. Little enough that he only needed enough time for a quick look around for the next street, before he begun once again and ran for his life down it.
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Archailist on June 15th, 2014, 5:21 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel didn't even notice that after he'd rounded the corner, suddenly there were people again. He nearly ran face-first into a pair of monks that seemed to be patrolling the area.. both of which looked distinctly familiar. And when they glanced down at the squirrel, and he looked up at them.. they looked distinctly angry too. They were the same monks he'd barely managed to escape from the last time. They must have gone out looking for him, because as soon as they saw the squirrel, one of them reached down and grabbed him in a fist faster than the squirrel could even react, and they shouldered their way once again into the nearest building to set him down.
"Get inside! You know that it's curfew and you know that you shouldn't have been wandering out there at night, not to mention you damn sneaked off! What are you doing, trying to get yourself killed, huh?" Whether the monks had let that little bit of information slip during their outrage or whether they honestly didn't mind if the squirrel knew, was beyond Arch's mental capacity at this point.

If anything, he was insanely happy that he finally had a pair of monks with him. Gods, he was so happy. He felt like he might start crying at any minute, and it was nothing short of a miracle that he didn't. What he did do, was suddenly lurch forwards and grapple as tight as physically possible to one of the monks ankles. He didn't care if he looked like a scared child at that point, he certainly felt like one anyway. They would too - anyone would - if they'd experienced what the squirrel had in that night. Not that either of the monks were aware of any of that stuff. They just glanced between one-another in surprise and one begun shaking his leg to try and free it from the small clay squirrel. He had a pretty good grip on it though, with both arms, both legs and his tail looped pretty damn firmly.
"Oi, what's wrong with you, damn little squirrel Pycon?" one of them grumbled harshly while staring down.

And truly, Arch couldn't hold it back any more. "I saw this woman. Or at least, I think she was a woman. I can't be sure. And she was dressed, in purple, all over! Like, these strange robes. And she just stood there, over the Aperture. And I didn't know what to do. She just stood there and didn't do anything. And.. then I ran. Who was she, why was she standing there?" The way that the two monks glanced between each-other told that there was something significant going on here. He'd stumbled across something that was supposed to be a secret. Or, at the least, something that they knew about. Something that was important. "What was it, what did I see? Who is the woman? Why is she dressed in purple?" The more questions he offloaded, he more relaxed he felt. The more at ease. And the more questions he asked, the more nervous the two monks that towered over the diminutive squirrel looked.

"You saw the Lady in Purple... that's an ill omen. She only appears when something bad will happen. You shouldn't have gone outside, little squirrel. Nobody knows much about her except that wherever she arrives, bad things will follow." That definitely removed all of the happy feelings he'd once held. All of his security melted away as quickly as it'd arrived in a puff of smoke. And with it, all of his questions disappeared. Nobody knew anything about her, except bad things would come? Nobody knew where she lived.. nobody knew who she was, why she dressed in purple, how sh knew about such bad things. "Now, sit down and get some rest. If you Pycon's sleep. You can go out again in the morning but until then, you're staying inside. No more wandering out at night. You know there's a curfew." This time, the monks guarded a door each and the squirrel knew there would be no point in asking if he could leave to go to the toilet or do anything else this time. He was incredibly lucky that the monks hadn't beaten him for running away and escaping into the night after a curfew.

Heck. He was lucky to escape with his life. But... he needed to know more about this woman. And all the other strange things that were happening in Nyka. Why were they happening - what caused them? Were these things emerging from the Aperture?

Continued here.
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Squirrels Always Get The Worst.

Postby Keene Ward on December 31st, 2014, 10:01 pm

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“It is the brain, the little gray cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within--not without."
- Poirot


Archailist :
Skills:
  • Acrobatics | +2 EXP
    Socialization | +3 EXP
    Climbing | +1 EXP
    Tactics | +1 EXP
    Running | +3 EXP
    Investigation | +1 EXP
    Planning | +1 EXP
    Subterfuge | +1 EXP
Lores:
  • Careful overplaying stealth
    Stealth Tactics: Softening Clay to Prevent Sound
    Nyka: Forboding Nights
    The Woman in Purple: An Ill Omen


Post Script :
Buh, spooky. D: That aside though, I enjoy reading the bits about the pycon's elasticity haha. You give a good description of them. :)

PM me if you have any questions!
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