[Lair Task] Make War, Not Love (FIN)

[medigel]

OOC

[ Task of War: ] The Feud
This task requires a group of AT LEAST two initiated members (students or Horsemen), to a max of five members. They may go anywhere in the Human World using the portal catacombs in the Lair. These catacombs lead to small human world towns only. All players must follow these steps to successfully create a blight and then harvest the Fear the battle that results from this

gaia_crown [ Step 1: ]

- You reach a peaceful town, and there seems to be absolutely nothing wrong with the town yet. It is time for you to take reins (ahem) in this town. First you must give them all a reason to fight each other. Only when the battle has stirred can you harvest the most Fear from their hatred and paranoia. War can be violent but first, it must start out small, controlled, like building a fire before it spreads

Roll a 100-sided dice. You may do as many times as you want, you are creating SUSPICION AND PARANOIA. Once your paranoia level has hit over 20 paranoia points you are ready for the next step. Rp out your results as you roll.
- A humans CAN BE NPCED that means you can rp as many "humans" as you want, including dialogue, etc etc
- War clan members start the team off with an automatic +5 paranoia points

1- 20: You see two lovers nearby, at a lake. They leave their oddly coloured metallic mount at the side. You quickly destroy their mount, watching as the couple return and begin to blame each other. Simpletons. +1 paranoia points
21- 40: You see a group of humans at a camping site. You quickly destroy their belongings, their tiny cloth home perhaps, or their metallic mounts. The group slowly and surely dissolves into chaos as they get angry at each other for taking and trashing things. +2 paranoia points
41 - 60: You see a crowd of humans waiting for something. You whisper words to the humans in line. They should be first. Why are they waiting. The crowd quickly dissolves into chaos. +2 paranoia points
61 -80: You see a small, tiny, fluffy creature that resembles a foxfire. You try to instill paranoia to it. It simply yaps and is annoying and does nothing else +0 paranoia points
81 - 100: You see what looks like a nearby school. You quickly do what you do best: kill one of the school wardens and sling their body for all those in the school to see. They are terrified. +3 paranoia points.

gaia_crown [ Step 2: ] - AFTER THE GROUP TOTAL IS OVER 20 POINTS.

Chaos and paranoia now reign supreme. It looks like humans are already fighting amongst themselves. This is the easy part, all you have to do is reap the rewards, and make sure that they do NOT resolve their actions. Resolving actions would mean that you get no fear.

Roll one 6-sided dice: Each player can only do this TWO TIMES MAX. Rp out your horsemen watching the humans engage in war.

- For each 1 OR 6 rolled, the humans have successfully resolved their actions. (No Fear points for this set of humans)
- For each 2 or 3 rolled, the humans have successfully fought and killed themselves, you can +1 Fear point
- For each 4 or 5 rolled, the humans have fought and not only that, they have spread their quarrel to other humans. This is a huge success. +2 Fear points

Tall YOUR OWN ROLL RESULTS from this step. This is the amount of Fear Points you have gained from this.

 

[medigel]

Medea was gone, the Lair had new interior and exterior decorating, and life went on as if the Hunters had not come to rescue their own. In some ways this was to be expected (really, as if the white-garbed monkeys had ever given them real pause for that mission), yet at the same time knowing that the high priestess was missing and no question was being raised made Shik's scalp p***k. He didn't have much time to dwell over that mystery, however, as soon after the invasion it was back to business.

And how lucky, he was being paired up with her to boot.

Shikoba still remembered how close he had been to being gutted during the battle and was not fond of the idea of getting in close proximity so shortly after the event. While his own violent impulses had slowly faded with the Hunters gone, it by no means meant Shaheen would be less moody. Unsure of what to expect, he decided to go with what was natural: a placid expression as he said her name in greeting and stepped into the portal.

It was sometime midmorning judging from the sun, and the town sprawled before them as innocent and sleepy as a nest of newborns: a perfect place to sow the seeds of war. "Ready?" he said, looking to the chieftain.  

[Seussi]

The strange disappearance of the head priestess was only one of many things on Shaheen's mind. The newly renovated lair, the escape of the hunters, and contemplation over her own oddly angry (even for her) behavior during the battle itself. It had been both a horrible and wonderful feeling. That hatred and anger that had burned inside of her. For that short time that it had happened, the voices had stopped. All of her doubts had disappeared. She had been confident again.

But then that had all ended when the battle had begun anew and she had helped to take down the barrier. Soon afterwards the rage had begun to fade, albeit slowly, and the voices had come back full force. Even now they were worse then usual, as though to make up for the times that they had been silent. Of course, Shaheen resented the feelings of doubt that welled up inside of her. She resented everything that represented a way that she might be considered weak. She lashed out at those things with anger and unbridled malice. It was one of the reasons that Shik was the very last person she possibly wanted to see that day, but of course, that would be the one person that she would be paired up with to perform a task.

"Shik." She responded, keeping her eyes diverted from his from the moment she first saw him. She was still unreasonably irritated with him, and if she didn't look at him, she thought that it might help a little. Her emotions were always so conflicted around him, and she hated it. She followed the man through the portal, stepping lightly with wings partially spread behind her, hand moving to rest on one hip as she stood to Shik's side and let her amber gaze roam across the town.

It was quiet. Peaceful. Destroying that sense of peace would be absolutely delicious. A small smirk spread across her lips. "Of course. When am I ever not?" She replied, still eyeing the town, still refusing to look directly at the man beside her. This would be easy. She had been born to do this.  

[medigel]

No initial insults? Well that was a hard sign to interpret as good or bad.

He simply gave a nod and spread his wings, saying, "Good hunting then." And off Shik went as a brown blur in the sky, eager to begin the task. The Hunter attack had been a most adequate wake up call, but his blood called for more nevertheless - faint, but irrepressible.

He clung to the rooftops and eventually made his way to one building whose structure was familiar regardless of the land they visited: what humans hilariously deemed "a place of learning". Inside he could see teeming masses of them at different ages and various stages of interest, which was terribly tempting . . . but no. Shik had done this before and knew where to strike. Swift as a bird he forced his way into the school, his presence making several students shiver as he passed them by without a glance. At length he found a place labeled "Campus Police", where he took a pause to crack his knuckles and pop his neck.

Several minutes later his gory goal was completed, and the body of the engorged man in blue made a satisfying slop sound as it hit the pavement just before the front of school. At first, nothing. And then slowly but surely the wails and screams began as the first-floor occupants laid eyes on the mangled body, and like a virus the panic spread from person to person until the entire school became a disturbed anthill with the pitiful bugs swarming out en mass.

And there Shik crouched on the rooftop with a dark smile, his wings spread as if he were sunning lazily before the tragedy had struck.

(( War bonus: Start at 5!
Total Paranoia Points: 8 ))  

[Seussi]

She only nodded in response, unsure if Shik was even bothering to look at her or whether he had seen, the idea that he was refusing to look at her as she was him strangely rankling on her already frayed nerves. She stood back for a time, eyes flickering towards his rapidly retreating form as it flew down towards the town, not immediately following. One of the more glorious attributes of this task was that while it might not have been wise to do so, she could go about her work on her own and not have to worry about any arguing with Shik the entire time. Because of course they would argue. It was already a given. It would start out jokingly, then it would become more heated as insults flew and became more and more unnecessarily nasty, and then it would degrade into a spar, where one or the other of them would come out victorious, though the loser would only admit defeat for that one short moment before the cycle began anew.

She was at least smart enough to know that this was not the time or the place for something like that. Maybe when they got back. Hell, more then likely when they got back. But not. Right. Now.

Unfortunately Shik just brought out the worst in her, thus the decision to stay behind and wait a short while before going to do her own thing. Find her calm. Fight against the voices in her head to try and think more clearly. That was better. Her wings spread out behind her and she leaped out into the open air, snapping her wings in a few rapid beats to get her cutting through the air before letting them fold against her back as she dove towards the town, letting the wind whip against her face and tangle her already disheveled curls, letting it clear her mind further, the roar of it almost deafening the sounds of the whispers. Her wings unfolded again only as she came dangerously close to the ground, halting her rapid descent with one or two sweeping wing beats that brought her up just before she settled down slowly to the ground. A small smile played on her lips as she took in her surroundings.

Trees. A forest on the outskirts of the town, perhaps. Of course she would have been drawn here first instead of to the small towns core, despite the fact that there were likely less humans here. Still, any work was important work. She knew from past experiences that humans liked to camp out in areas such as this. And indeed, she cocked her head to the side as she heard laughter and talking in the distance, as well as the familiar crackling sound of a campfire.

Jackpot.

The war chieftain took off immediately in that direction, feet treading lightly on the ground, silent as the wind as she made her way towards the campsite. Soon enough she found herself quite near and was scaling a tree in order to get a better vantage point of the activities below. Two tents were erected, and the humans were sitting around the fire nearby, cooking what was probably their lunch or dinner on some long metallic sticks. Two couples, two men and two women, joking, friendly, comfortable. Shaheen shook her head to herself in amusement, knowing from experience how quickly such attitudes could shift and change.

She spread her wings and soared overhead. The campers might have glanced up questioningly as though they had seen something fly by, but they quickly went back to chatting when it became clear that there was nothing there. Nobody was even looking at the tents, so her work to them was easily done. A few slashes of her dagger, a couple of kicked over poles. The coolers filled with food that sat outside were casually tipped over, spilling their contents out onto the grass and dirt. It only took a few moments to complete, and with a smirk she strolled her way to another tree to lean against and wait. Only one tent had been massacred, the other had been left completely untouched. Let them think of that what they would.

The sounds of startled cries of exclamation and the angry bickering that followed was like music to the war chieftains ears. Her work completed, she turned her back and dissolved back into the wilderness.

(( +2 paranoia points, 10 paranoia points total ))  

[medigel]

With school finished, recess seemed like a logical idea to pursue. And - oh, how quaint - the town actually managed to keep some of its forests rather than tear them down. Shik winged his way over the scattered groups, eyeing which to pick, when he noticed that one of them was already in a disarray: food spoiled, cloth-home a bundle of useless material - Shaheen was in the area.

Well the place was big enough for the two of them. And, as ever, even with the currently strained formality between them Shik decided to try and one-up the chieftain with some friendly competition; perhaps that would loose her of her perceived demons.

After a few encirclements the horseman found himself a quiet campsite and lingered in the treetops, watching the three human males (one small, one medium, and one large) who had just settled in the plot. The shorter two were clearly new with the concept of living in the wilderness as the older one, most likely their father, showed them the means to pitch a cloth-home and create a fire, whereupon they roasted small white things on sticks that caught fire and expanded. It was all very droll to watch, but Shik's patience was eventually rewarded when the father decided to fit fishing into the schedule for the day. The eager children were instructed to put the fire out (for some sort of Bear of Smoke was watching them; Shik couldn't help but smirk at that), and at length the humans departed for the lake some distance away.

He waited a solid fifteen minutes before despoiling the virgin campsite. Immediately he went for the coals of the fire pit, feeding and coaxing them back to life with dry pieces of wood, shaping it so that the flames would begin to push past the stone barrier about it and catch the area up in smoke. As the fire hungrily ate and grew, Shik then easily knocked down the cloth-home with a few beats of his wings, angling it so that it fell closer to the fire; the younglings had not secure the poles as well as they thought they had. Finally, Shik dove into the fallen cloth-home and, grasping their food stores, let the pieces fall as they wanted; their water was left open and pouring out along with it.

He could hear distant cries as humans from the nearby area saw the rogue fire and took his leave, knowing that the scarelings' inexperience would be the center point of blame.

(( +2
Paranoia Points: 12 ))

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

The war chieftain began to wander around the forest now, thoughtful towards what chaos she might be able to induce next. She was just debating whether or not she should now head into the town proper to conduct some proper destruction when a few cries caught her attention. Her head snapped in the direction of the sound, but there was little to be seen from the ground with the forest canopy overhead, blocking out the sky. So, she took wing, rising above the greenery, dodging around leaves and branches but still receiving the occasional scratch. She wasn't even quite high enough yet when the acrid scent of smoke hit her nostrils, and her nose wrinkled up ever so slightly. And then the visual to go along with it, once she cleared the tops of the trees and was out in the open air once more. She could only assume that Shik was responsible, and she mentally cursed him. Now the entire area was likely spoiled as campers would be running around in panic to vacate the area. Really, she should have been thinking more about what a splendid job he had done contributing to the task, but she was feeling rather incorrigible at the moment.

Also, she saw the smoke wavering off into the the sky as an open challenge, one that she readily accepted. She pondered for a moment how to counter, her eyes sweeping the landscape until the glimmer and sparkle of the human sun off of a pristine and crystal clear lake. It was obviously one of the selling features of the campsite, and she could see an open area nearby with many metallic mounts lined up side by side within, most of which appeared to be attached to some other long metal device. Swooping in closer for inspection, she could see that a few of these held another odd human invention, but one that she recognized as a boat. She flew ever lower until she landed at the entrance to this area. Many of the humans that were standing around outside were all looking and pointing towards the smoke, so many of them were not paying attention. She walked along the line of mounts, eyeing them curiously, having not really spent much time inspecting them before or trying to work out how they functioned. She watched as a man opened a door on his mount and went inside, and experimented a little herself, walking up to mounts at random and pulling on the handles. Many of the ones she attempted would not budge, but a few would click open, and with a self satisfied smirk, she would climb inside, slashing at upholstery with her dagger and opening compartments to empty out their contents and dump them in the bush. She was familiar with the concept robbery, of course, though none of these mounts held anything of interest or value that she wished to keep for herself. As an afterthought, she would also slash at the rubber wheels that seemed to be necessary in the mounts travel, before moving on and trying others.

Eventually, she tired of this, and decided to move on to bigger game. She stood to the side and watched as one mount backed up towards the water, it's long metal device retreating beneath the surface. The mount then stopped, before entering the water itself, and a human opened a door and dismounted from within to wade out into the water, waving his hands towards a boat that was slowly making it's way forward towards him. Whatever it was they were doing, Shaheen had little interest. She did, however, have interest in the mount itself, which was still roaring..or possibly just purring loudly, it's door still ajar. She made her way towards it, and put herself inside, sitting in the saddle rather uncomfortably with her wings taking up far too much room in such a confined space. All she could really think about for a second was how awful it must have been to travel in, when her hand came up to an odd stick that stuck out from the side of the wheel shaped thing in front of her, pulling on it and finding that as she did so it moved downwards, and as it moved downwards a small arrow moved over some letters and numbers. P, N, D, 1, 2, R...she had no idea what any of that actually meant. The horsewoman did know that when she got to "N" however, she had no need to go further. The mount began moving backwards, and startled, she quickly through herself back out of it, scrambling to her feet and watching as it rolled straight into the water. The man in the water was shouting. The man on the boat was shouting.

Shaheen was smirking. She totally planned that. Absolutely.

+2 Paranoia points. 14 paranoia points total.

Ol-j-man-

 

[medigel]

While Shaheen had her way with the boats and their ignorant owners, Shik migrated from the fire to a different area of the forest, snickering to himself as he heard the frantic cries of humans and the telltale hiss of water hitting flame. Perhaps he would wreak similar havoc upon a different campsite and see how long they could keep up.

In his way, however, was a strange four-legged creature barely taller than his ankle. It perked its ears at him and stared with round dark eyes in his general direction. Animals always did have better senses than humans.

So Shik manifested himself briefly, stood over the creature, and made a step forward.

It blinked.

Another step.

It stared.

Shik growled softly and made to kick at the fox, which at last saw sense and fled into the underbrush with its bushy tail like a flag behind it, yapping all the way.

Animals might have better senses, but they also tended to be as stupid as two-leggers. This was what Shik consoled himself with.

(( +0
Paranoia Points: 14 ))  

[Seussi]

With a small chuckle to herself Shaheen took to the skies once more, deciding to check on the progress of what she still assumed was Shik's fire before deciding whether it was worth it to sow more seeds of discord in this particular area or it was perhaps time to move on to somewhere new. She was finding that she was actually enjoying herself, and the more she achieved the less the voices in her head bothered her, probably because her own doubts began to diminish the better the results of her actions became.

As she soared through the air, she kept her eyes downcast in case she should happen upon some scenario that was just too good to pass up, and so it was that she did spot a familiar form, and she veered down towards it, wings flapping rapidly as she descended into the forest and alighted herself upon a tree branch, her wings knocking loose bits of twigs and leaves to fall harmlessly upon the executioner standing below. "What are you messing around at, Shikoba?" She asked, her usual smirk returning though if he bothered to look, he might see that her eyes were glittering with amusement.

"I know you're akin to a wild animal, but that doesn't mean you should take a break to frolic around with them." She continued, straightening up from her crouched position before alighting back into the air once more. If he had anything to reply to her with, she ignored it. He could follow her if he wanted to get into anything, and see how to really get the job done.

It wasn't long afterwards that she found another campsite. It was already in disarray as the couple were dismantling their tent, hurriedly throwing supplies into the back of their mount. Likely they wanted to get away before the fire spread too near.

Again, curious about the mount itself and what made it tick, the chieftain made her way to the front of the vehicle, then lowered herself to the ground and squirmed her way in underneath, rolling onto her back to inspect it's underside with golden orbs. Her dagger flashed in her hand and she began jabbing at things, trying to find some kind of weakness as she moved her way backwards. Her blade struck some kind of vein, and a dark fluid began to drip it's way down to the earth as she rolled out of the way, scooting back yet more. Jabbing. Cutting. Slashing. Penetrating the steel where she could. More strange smelling fluids as the mount bled upon the ground. The chieftain rolled her way out from underneath completely, just in time as the couple had both jumped inside and slammed the doors. The mount itself began making an odd noise, before spluttering and then quitting completely. The man looked stricken, before he whirled on the woman and began shouting at her. Something about 'fuel' and 'filling up before they left', whatever all of that meant. The horsewoman just shrugged and strolled away.

Her work there was done.

+2 paranoia points, 16 paranoia points total.  

[medigel]

Of course she had to bear witness. Of course.

He brushed away the falling debris with a swipe of his hand and simply stared up at Shaheen with a look that read somewhere between "gtfo" and "yeah yeah whatever", which was all the reply he needed to give before she flew on away. But the glimmer in her eye was a little hopeful that things were slowly returning to normal.

But for now? The campsites looked like they were becoming her favored territory, so Shik took flight and left the area for her pleasure in lieu of finding virgin ground in the town. On his way in he heard the same familiar sounds of children, this time from a line of the small ones as they entered a yellow and elongated mount with round paws. It looked as though their education was finished for the day, so killing another of their blue-men wouldn't have the same impact. There was, however, someone in charge of their well being on the grey paths . . .

And thus came the strange reports of children spying their driver suffering what looked to be a heart attack, only no heart attack they knew of started off with three deep, jagged lines across the chest. Or being thrown bodily out the bus. Or a gurgled scream.

Those that didn't faint or piss themselves certainly had something to talk about to their mothers when they asked, "How was school today?"

(( +3
Paranoia Points: 19 ))

Seussi

 

[Seussi]

Shaheen finally felt that she had probably spent enough time, if not too much, at the campsite area already. The smoke was becoming thick and heavy, it's horrible smell causing her eyes to water. She like fire, but not to such a degree when she was in it's very midst. She would enjoy watching it from far off and above, however, it's destructive path reminding her of what the wretched hunters had done to her own homeland, and her sense of vindication could soar just as high as she.

Into the town itself she finally went, a semi-large group of humans catching her eye. They appeared to be lined up along a grey path outside of some kind of establishment, but she had no idea for what reason this might be. Oh well, it didn't really matter much. What was important is that they were waiting for something, and many of them were likely already feeling anxious or impatient. This made her task quite easy, really.

She landed on the ground not too far away, then strode over, inspecting the line up, weighing them up, judging them. That young woman with the multiple children looked quite harried so she started with her, whispering words in her ear to encourage her to try and move forward in the line. She had children, so why should she have to wait? Next an elderly man who's face was set in a scowl. Same words, just slightly altered to fit the new circumstances. Up the line further, picking and choosing.

As she walked away, she could already hear the arguments breaking out, the sounds of discord that brought a smile to her lips. The scuffling of feet as some people tried to surge forward while others tried to keep them back.

And where was the other war horseman for her to celebrate these small victories with? "Shik!" her voice rang out as she wandered the streets. She could have taken to the skies but chose instead to follow the sounds of the sirens. Surely wherever an alarm was being raised, the executioner could not be far away.

+2 paranoia pts, 21 points total  

[medigel]

"WHAT WOMAN GAWD"

Perched on a nearby building, Shik watched the tumultuous gaggle of humans try to make sense of his handiwork and at first didn't acknowledge Shaheen. Only once the wailing-flicker-lights mount ran to the scene and disgorged its load of white-coated healers did he turn and gaze upon her with a satisfied look. "You certainly had fun in the woods," he said as he lazed over the edge. "And speaking of, I should go see what my work has wrought. Ta."

And he dropped off the side of the building, caught himself with a few wingbeats, and hoofed it to the camp where . . . there was no sense of anger. The horseman frowned and circled deeper, picking out the family of three males from before cleaning through the ashes and despoiled site with a calmness that struck him stunned momentarily. It seemed that the fire had been put out while they were gone and, once the human in green had given them a stern talking to, the three had been cowed into picking up the mess. No fight, no arguing - Gods damn it.

And thus Shik winged away with a grumble, his catlike satisfaction soured.

(( Roll 1: NOPE ))  

[Seussi]

Shaheen found Shik lurking on a rooftop, and she offered him a smile for once instead of a scowl. Yes, all of this work sowing chaos was putting her in a much better mood then usual, even around the hulking mass of executioner. She had just settled herself on the ledge next to him, to watch what discord he had wrought on his own, when he stood up and winged off somewhere else.

Okay, now she was scowling. She had just come to celebrate in a job well done and he wouldn't even stick around for five minutes to let her be nice? If she had a rock handy, she might have thrown it at him as he flew away. Stupid Shik. She actually almost hoped that the humans put out that fire he started.

Well, she supposed she needed to go and see about what was happening as well, so she threw herself off of the rooftop shortly after him, back towards the humans that she had left standing in a line up. She was delighted to see, as she touched down on the ground to watch her handiwork, that several wailing mounts with flashing lights had arrived, some dressed in white, others in blue. There were humans being lifted onto mobile cots, some of them looking fairly lifeless. The mother that she had first whispered to was wailing with a child clutched in her arms as another was lifted off of the ground into one of these cots. The blue uniforms were trying to control the continuing violence with strange looking weapons that emitted an electrical sound, which only seemed to further enrage the crowd. Gunshots were sounding. War was breaking out.

Excellent.

Roll 1: +1 fear point~  

[medigel]

Luck be a b***h today for Shik, as he found out all too well. For whatever reason, rather than panic about the dead wardens he had strewn on the ground and point fingers are suspects, the humans in blue began to corral the area off with yellow and black bands; onlookers were eventually shooed away, leaving the executioner with nothing to feed off except anger.

So it was that when Shik returned to the spot he'd left Shaheen with, it was with a scowl and a rather innocent looking fox in hand - well, by the scruff of its neck really. This was not going to be a pleasant afternoon after all.

He didn't even say anything. He just landed by her and scowled and threw the embroiled chaos before them a dark look, unable to join in her revelry. All of that work and nothing to show for it?

He braced himself for the onslought of insults and clenched the fox's neck tighter, ignoring its yaps.

(( +0

WTG SHIK ))  

[Seussi]

The war chieftain was in a pretty good mood...that was until Shik showed up with some horrible yapping creature held by the scruff of it's poor scrawny neck and a scowl on his face that could probably whither flowers. She turned towards him with an eyebrow raised, arms crossing over her chest as she leaned back from him a little. She opened her mouth as though to say something and then snapped it shut, pursing her lips in a firm line and giving him a small head shake instead and then a long, suffering look ending in an eye roll. He was obviously pouting about something, and as much as she'd love to rub some salt into the wounds, she still had more checking in to do. At least one of them had to have done their job properly.

Stupid man. Obviously war was a woman's work. Maybe he should just stay home and cook dinner. The thought brought a smirk to her lips as she winged away back towards the campground and---oh look, complete and utter pandemonium had broken out since her absence! While Shiks fire might have gone out, for whatever reason others had started. Humans were attacking each others, bodies were strewn around campsites. Yes, all of her hard work in this particular area had indeed paid off. With some luck, it would spread into the town proper and within a few days, the town would be nothing but a wasteland.

Feeling quite cheerful and vindicated, Shaheen returned to where she had left Shik.

"Well, at least I managed to get some conflict started." She mused, keeping her distance. "I think we're done here...unless there is more wildlife you wish to frolic with before we leave." Yes, okay, so she couldn't hold back the insults any longer.

Fear pts: +2 (3 total)

Ol-j-man