[MINGLE] Wendi-go-go to the inn

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Village and Inn
WHEN: 27-31 July
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
NOTES: The Wendigo threatening the village will be killed mid 28 July, with a Blue Lily, per these threads. Plot details here. Note: The final fight is close enough to be seen from the upstairs inn windows.
WARNINGS: Wendigo attack mingle, please warn in comment headers if discussing violence, gore, or related trauma. Possible mentions of character death.

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The urgent warnings come from villagers returning south from the lake: a creature twice the size of a man, antlered and voracious. Larger than any they've seen on the plains, stalking its way to the main village. Some might have their own names for this hunger in a skin of shadow; others might remember that it was the first to claim a life, in their village's short history.

Whatever context one has for it, best to secure all pets and loved ones before it arrives. With weapons and food stores at the inn, the call goes out to gather — And to bring back any tools, because there's no telling what doors and windows can do to stop such a creature.

Comments

[spoileralert]

“25 points for a broken nose,” she agreed, “20 for a black eye, and an even 30 for a knock-out. That seems fair.” What these points counted towards, why, or how many people she expected to actually ask about her scars she didn’t know or care. It was all in good fun. And it did raise her spirits some, making her feel a little more like herself and less like the shell of a girl she knew wandered around town in her skin.

[demonic_divinity]

"I will spare a page just for the point system. Update me and I will keep your score up to date." Was he serious? Fuck yes he was. And he will keep that score system on hand. "No, 40 for a knock out, namely it they hit something on the way down." He added with a wave of his hands. "And as a bonus, if you make someone cry when you tell them off you get 20 points."

[spoileralert]

She laughs, if only briefly, and shakes her head.

“You know I’m not really going to go around punching people, right? For one thing I doubt anybody is going to ask. For another, I’m pretty sure the answer is plenty punishment for anyone who does.”

[demonic_divinity]

"I'll still make it just in case. You can get a laugh now and then." He replied amused, looking from her to the battle again. "Most likely, yes."

[spoileralert]

She let the conversation lag for a moment, thinking how nice it was that he liked to make her laugh and very little she felt she deserved even that small consideration. She watched the battle below without really seeing it.

“So how did you die? Fair’s fair.”

[demonic_divinity]

He took a long, exaggerated breath, and sighed, just as dramatic, before he shifted to sit down on the roof, and yep the back of his hair was now black from the soot, he didn't notice yet thankfully.

"I was murdered, by the person I loved most." A true note of pain in his voice, as he looked at his nails again, tugging at a hangnail... his hands used to be so perfectly soft, hangnails weren't fair.

"We had a disagreement, and it escalated until I was stabbed in the heart."

[spoileralert]

She did her best not to judge the dramatics. It was just who he was.

"I'm sorry," she offered, condolence and not pity. She was from Gotham. Murder by a loved one just wasn't that uncommon.

"Was it about your revolution, or just personal?"

[demonic_divinity]

At least she understood.

He offered a shrug of those wide shoulders before sighing again. "Thank you. And yes and no, both at once yet neither. We overthrew and slayed the demon king, we set our world free, but unfortunetly, we didn't see eye to eye and it simply got out of hand." He explained with a wave of his hand.

"No where near as exciting as local sadist."

[spoileralert]

She nodded along as though this explanation didn’t sound completely insane. Demon kings trying to take over the world... Where did he live, Metropolis?

“Yeah... it’s always sad when that kind of thing happens.” She couldn’t offer much more than that.

“Bored sadist in the middle of a gang war,” she corrected, half bragging. She regretted it immediately. She didn’t want to explain why the gang war happened, what she was doing out during it, even how bad it got.

“Exciting is overrated,” she went on quickly, hoping the strain in her voice was a clear enough sign not to ask questions.

[demonic_divinity]

Limbo City, but the same idea. Who names a city after Limbo?

"Every great revolutionary dies young, otherwise they grow to be a villain." He offered with another shrug, sad fact was he knew he was already the villain in someones story, but that hurt. "We are meant to live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse, while our murderers pretend to weep at our funerals."

He's a little depressing at times. He shook his head some.

"You'd think he'd be out torturing gang members? Seems like the best time to be a bored sadist. A gangwar though, you must be quite the fighter." His blue eyes shifted to her. What was this woman? "Tell me about yourself Steph, you sound like you've seen much."

[spoileralert]

Steph turns as far as she can away from him without hurting herself or moving the rest of her body. She is not going to talk about living fast, dying young, gang members being tortured, or anything on those lines. She wasn't.

"I'm from Gotham," she said instead, as though this explained everything. "Of course I've seen a lot. I can name five classmates I know of who were killed when we were in school together, and twenty more whose family members did. We had an earthquake once and the government declared us 'not worth the trouble'. Surviving is a matter of luck or money, and we never had much money."

[demonic_divinity]

He was just waxing poetry.

He nodded as he listened. "That sounds horrible, how old were you when it happened? And, no, I do not know a Gotham." He admitted as he listened. "But it sounds a lot like Limbo... without as much death. There is a lot but it's usually swept under the rug." He propped his arm on his knee resting a hand in his hair before a flake of dried blood flaked free like disgusting dandruff. How the high have fallen.

"I had money, a lot of it. I always have, that's how I funded the Order. Learning to live here is a challenge to say the least."

[spoileralert]

“It was last year,” she answered flatly. “I was sixteen.”

But this was a much more comfortable subject to talk about, so she turns to raise an amused eyebrow at him.

“That explains more than it doesn’t. Definitely the penchant for drama.”

[demonic_divinity]

"Damn, and you already have a gang war? Is tragedy just in that city?" He looked a little concerned, but demonic damage was usually fixed pretty quick.

"What? What does that mean?" He scrunched his brows a bit, "Money does not make one dramatic."

[spoileralert]

“The reason the government wrote us off is because the way people in Gotham respond to a natural disaster is rioting, looting, violence, pointless destruction of property... And that’s the civilians. Don’t get me started on the costumed and career criminals. There’s more than one ‘local sadist’.” So yeah, tragedy was definitely a big part of the city. It wasn’t a place you wanted to live, given a choice.

She snorted a laugh.

“Yeah, it really does.”

[demonic_divinity]

"Sounds like a lovely town." He replied lightly, really even Limbo City sounds better now and it was run by a literal devil. Humans needed someone to lead them to a better way... "Do you think they have little sadist get together?" He wasn't the best at humor, but he tries... that and he can see it happening.

"Pray tell, what makes you feel this way?"

[spoileralert]

"No, I'm pretty sure they just try to kill each other." The rogues of Gotham never seemed to have the best relationships, as far as she could tell.

"Just something I've noticed, from what few rich people I know. Maybe it's the lack of financial stress. You have all this extra energy to waste pretending you're Hamlet, or Jay Gatsby, or... I dunno, the guy from Wuthering Heights?" She hadn't read that one, but she was familiar with the idea.

[demonic_divinity]

"what a lovely place you live in. You should come to Limbo, I'm sure it's nicer without the demon king." He spoke with a shrug. "Less open sadists anyway."

He chuckled at that. "Okay, maybe, I give you that. I am vastly different from my brother and money is the deciding factor, aside form intelligence. I am much smarter." That was pure ego. "I would take Jay Gabsy over Heathcliff anything, thank you. I'm not into necrophilia."

[spoileralert]

"Sounds perfect." Honestly, she'd be happy anywhere away from Gotham. She was happy here, if you could call what she was going through 'happiness'. Most people wouldn't.

"Yeah, you're a real Gatsby alright. End up shot to death in a swimming pool because you couldn't keep it in your pants."

[demonic_divinity]

"You would always be welcome in the Order, even if I'm dead, I'm sure it's still being run." Demons wouldn't stop coming, his brother was an idiot. You cant kill a demon king and not put someone in his place to stop the demons.

"If only, dying not keeping it in ones pants sounds classier..." He made a face showing he was kidding. "Still, Gatsby is still good."

[spoileralert]

"No," was the immediate answer, firm and perhaps a little more alarmed than was appropriate. She couldn't join any causes. She couldn't risk fucking up again like she did before.

"Gatsby's alright. Not my favorite, but it's very much about rich people being rich. Kind of boring, even, aside from the 20s culture and history stuff."

[demonic_divinity]

He shrugged a bit, he had spent so long preaching for people to join his cause, but he also wouldn't force anyone. "Merely an idea." He stated before dropping it.

"Honestly, I would take Great Expectations over it, but you didn't mention Pip."

[spoileralert]

"That's because I was making a point, about your life not being a literary drama. Kinda missed the train on that one, didn't you?"

[demonic_divinity]

"Maybe I did, but it was a fun debate anyway... besides, I am pretty sure, kids parents get brutally murdered, kid gets split from twin and adopted by rich people and spends life fighting demons... that feels like a novel to me. If I didn't live it I wouldn't believe it." He admitted as he pushed himself up. "I'm going back in now."

[spoileralert]

That was a fair point too. She wondered what happened in Batman's childhood that made him wear freaking bat ears to fight crime.

"I'm staying out here. You don't need to leave the window open. I'll see you around." She wouldn't be coming back in the window, like as not.