waylaid.

1.30.2009
5:44pm

The last of the dusk is fading from the sky when Lukas descends the stairs of the Brotherhood, turns his collar up against the wind, and pushes out the back door. His ford is parked in the alley, but he finds he'd rather walk tonight. It's not so far to the Mile, and besides, he anticipates they'll be dragging trophies to the caern when all's said and done.

The streets around the Caern are mean and rough. Shambling buildings. Rusty cars. Shady characters loitering on streetcorners and on stoops by day; streetwalkers and hustlers at night. A man like Lukas would be an easy mark: too well-dressed for this area, unbowed by time and circumstance. But Lukas is not a man but a Garou. The rules are different for him.

He walks -- not fast, but purposefully, with a clear direction in mind. He cuts through dark alleys, crosses streets; proceeds steadily northeast. The wind is in his face and he keeps his head down, his newsboy cap jammed tightly on.

"Spare a buck, man?"

He's heading for battle. He's thinking about tactics and formations, about what might lie in wait, about what he might do to assure that his pack survives this, rises above this, succeeds in what they have to do. He's thinking about what he might leave behind, too, if he doesn't survive this. Who and what and where, the loose ends of a life shorn suddenly in its prime. He's thinking --

"Hey, man, just a buck, I ain't ate for days."

"No." Lukas is faintly irritated; most bums gave up if you didn't look at them. This one's persistent, jogging to keep up. Lukas takes a sharp turn into a tight alley, hoping to lose him in the crowded darkness.

"Come on man, just a dollar, or whatever you wanna give me. Just a buck, I'm starving, man -- " and he reaches out and grabs Lukas by the arm, his gnarled, grimy fingers twisting into the fine wool of the Shadow Lord's coat.

Lukas pulls his arm sharply out of his grasp. Turns on him, sudden enough to make him quail. "Don't touch me."

But the panhandler reaches for him again, locking both hands around his elbow this time. His eyes dart over the Ahroun's shoulder, and alarms are just beginning to tingle in Lukas' mind when the bum starts shouting, hoarse, his voice breaking:

"[i]Come on, what are you waiting for? I got 'im, just like you told me! I got 'im, now come on![/i]"

Lukas shoves the panhandler back. He hits the opposite wall with a grunt. The Ahroun snapshifts on instinct, and not an instant too soon -- a loop of razorwire lands around his neck and pulls viciously tight, shearing through the thick fur of his ruff, biting into the flesh. The bum is pressed back into a corner between a dumpster and a stack of rotting crates, pissing himself, gibbering. Wyrmbreaker can hear a high tittering laugh behind him, boyish, nasty, and the wire jerks another notch tighter.

"Dude! This is way better than that dog we did!"

Wyrmbreaker doesn't think twice. He doesn't think at all. He catches his distorted reflection in a dirty pane of glass -- reaches out with his spirit -- [i]pushes[/i] --

([b]pop.[/b])

Otherside now. The lacerating noose had simply ceased to exist. The pain was still there, sharp and bright as a new coin, but with every heartbeat his flesh closes in on itself, resealing, healing.

He can feel his rage, too. That does not heal. That does not subside. It grows, furious, outraged by the insult and the injury --

that he had been somehow stalked, marked, led like a prey-animal to this trap where two humans, two subhuman wyrm-things, wanted to use him as their prey. As their toy.

-- until he must tamp it down almost physically. It would do him no good to cross back in a frenzy, unable to think, unable to plan. It would do him no good to plunge thoughtlessly into combat.

His temper leashed, the Ahroun presses his mind against the Gauntlet; opens not his body's eyes but his mind's, and looks across the barrier.

--

"Where'd he go?" Stark puzzlement; then a rising, irrational fury. "That's NOT FAIR, that's FUCKING CHEATING, he can't just DISAPPEAR LIKE THAT."

There are two boys. The younger can't be much older than twelve or thirteen, freckled, with the sort of sunbleached blond hair that would darken as he aged. He looks like someone's little brother, some suburban soccer mom's little boy, if not for the fact that his body is packed, knotted, twisting and bulging with surreally hypertrophied musculature. His skeleton tops out at a boy's height; on that five feet or so of height is perhaps two, two hundred fifty pounds of muscle. His ripped jeans look ready to split down the seams. His skater-tee barely manages to encase the breadth of his chest, the circumference of his biceps. He's vibrating with wrath, gnashing his teeth, sweating even in the chill.

There's a length of razor wire in his hands, the ends wrapped to keep from cutting his own hands, the middle stretch red with an Ahroun's blood.

His friend is older, though the only real way to judge is by stature and, perhaps, temperament. He seems steadier, less prone to bounce between bouts of glee and fury. His face is hidden behind a hockey mask, Jason-style. He wears denim overalls, no shirt, no coat -- no shoes even. He doesn't seem to feel the cold at all. There's a gas-operated chainsaw in his hands.

"Chill out," he tells the younger. "He'll be back."

"I wanted to cut his head off. You said I could. You said! Cut his fucking head off and EAT HIS BRAINS. Did you see [i]Blood Vengeance of Krokk?[/i] DUDE." Moodswing, instantaneous. "It was the most awesome thing EVER, Krokk rapes this slut with a broken broomstick until it comes out her stomach, but she's STILL ALIVE, and then he cuts her head off with razor wire just like this one, and there was blood everywhere, if you pause at exactly 12:13:42 you can see the INSIDE OF HER NECK. And the TUBES and SQUISHY SHIT. Do you think it really looks like that? With like, dangly tubes and squishy shit?"

"I don't know." The older boy's voice is muffled through his hockey mask. The muscles in his chest bunch and flex as he yanks he ripcord of the chainsaw. It only takes him one pull to bring it to life. Then he rolls his head on his shoulders. "Let's find out." He nods at the bum, still incoherent in his flimsy refuge. "Hold him still. And keep your fucking fingers out of the way, unless you wanna lose 'em."

--

Wyrmbreaker has seen enough. He pulls his mind back, finds himself in the moonlit, ghostly world of the umbra again. He pushes against the Gauntlet, mind and body this time, feels it give, feels himself moving across...

...excruciatingly slow this time. It takes seconds on end, seconds he did not have. The world swims into view. The bum is dead; the air is coppery with blood. The younger boy is laughing, a high, excited, not entirely sane sound. The older's chainsaw is growling in his hand, and he wipes blood off his chest, almost thoughtfully.

"DUDE THAT WAS AWESOME. THAT WAS THE BEST THING EV--"

Wyrmbreaker, a black beast of tooth and claw, lunges at their backs. But the older boy-monster's senses are sharper than he'd expected. He wheels around, brings the chainsaw up, revs it up. The basso snarl of the power saw turns to a tenor scream. Its timbre and pitch change abruptly as the spinning, serrated chain bites deep into the Shadow Lord's flesh. While the younger boy is still staring slack-jawed, Wyrmbreaker roars with pain, and then with rage.

His claws flash out. He tears the fucking hockey mask off. He tears half of the older boy's face off, too -- a spray of arterial blood steaming hot on the alley walls.

This jolts the younger boy into action.

Things go fast after that. The younger of the two whips his razorwire out like a chain, seeking to grapple the black beast suddenly rampaging in their midst, but the monstrosity is too fast, too strong. The last few feet of the razorwire snaps off, sending chips and sharp-slicing metal flying in all directions. Wyrmbreaker snaps at the chainsaw-wielding boy again, and his nerve fails him, he turns, he runs, Wyrmbreaker bears him down from behind and crushes his head in his teeth.

The younger boy is screaming in mindless rage now, lashing at the werewolf's back with his razored chain, using it like a whip now. The wire strips off a stripe of fur and flesh, but it's mostly fur, not a lot of flesh, and now Wyrmbreaker is turning his fury on him now, wheeling around, hackles up, eyes glaring pale, and he drives his claws into the younger boy's side.

The claws detach. Remain stuck in the flesh, pinning the boy-monster's shirt against his body. But Wyrmbreaker had underestimated the boy's tenacity, his courage and his strength -- he'd left an angle unguarded, just for a moment, which is a moment too long.

The boy flicks his wrist, whips the chain out against the Shadow Lord's underbelly. The razors slice deep; they sink in. The boy [b]pulls[/b].

Wyrmbreaker's abdominal wall opens up as neatly as if someone found a hidden zipper and undid it. The damage is catastrophic. He can, in the last surreal seconds of his life, hear his blood pattering down on the ground, hissing as it melts the dirty snow. He can feel the last of his strength drain out of him as his joints unlock.

Wyrmbreaker hits the alley floor.

The twisting blue flame of his rage burns, burns ... burns out.

--

And sparks back to life.

--

And blazes into a bonfire.

There's no such thing as control now. White-hot, his rage is a force of nature, a monster with its own will, and it floods out of his deepest reserves, unstoppable, reknits the worst of the damage with its own sheer fury, burns through the walls and the cages and the chains that Wyrmbreaker imposes on himself, reveals them for the flimsy things they really are.

His entrails are still spilling out of his body. His blood is still a rapidly spreading pool. He does not care; he does not feel any of this. He lunges, he drags himself forward, his eyes empty of anything but hate and rage, and he goes for the boy-monster with everything he has.

And the boy falters before this onslaught. He throws his chain out, desperately; manages to entangle the Ahroun for a second; scrambles for his dead compatriot's chainsaw, still rumbling on the alley floor. Behind him, the Ahroun has thrashed, clawed, bitten his way through the bindings. The boy raises the chainsaw, but he doesn't even have time to turn before Wyrmbreaker descends on him from behind, an engine of destruction in black fur and white teeth.

The penultimate thing the boy feels is the werewolf's hot paws on his back, hot breath on his neck.

The last thing: the werewolf's teeth, tearing through his spine.

--

It's hours before Wyrmbreaker awakens from ... wherever it is his mind goes during the frenzy, and after it.

He finds himself on the alley floor in his underclothes, filthy and freezing, the white of his undershirt and the grey of his undershorts stained red with blood, the remains of his clothing scattered about.

He finds a gas-less chainsaw; a broken stretch of razorwire.

He finds a dead bum, almost unrecognizable.

And he finds the remains of two gorehounds, wholly unrecognizable now, little more than shreds of meat and gristle and bone.

Slowly, Lukas gets up. Sways for a moment, lightheaded, thoroughly weary. His wounds have already closed themselves, sometime between the time he succumbed to frenzy and the time he fell unconscious, spent and limp in its aftermath. There's a new tightness to the skin of his abdomen, his side, that had not been there before. When he rolls his shirt up (the blood drying and stiff-frozen, flaking off onto his fingers) he sees the mark there, long and thin, pale against his swarthy skin: a new scar, and one he'll wear to the end of his days.

He lets his shirt fall back into place. He would like nothing more than to go home. Go somewhere safe. He would like nothing more than to curl up with his pack and sleep for a thousand years in the warmth, the elemental comfort of their presence.

Instead, Lukas Wyrmbreaker bends to the task of cleaning the mess up. Preferably before the humans find it.



--

[Administrator] snail, welcome to In Character Room (Now)

[snail] ambush!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] resist!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 4 (Botch x 2 at target 6)

[snail] (free attack +5 (3 succ, +2 botch) -- razor garrotte -- dex/melee diff 7 -2 (back attack))
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5)

[snail] (damage str+1L +6)
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] inits!
gorehound 1 +8
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] gorehound 2 +8
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] lukas +9
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] GH2 --> lukas --> GH1

[snail] GH1 declare:
3rage
Use razor garrotte as fighting chain -- attack 4 times

Lukas:
sidestep (+WP)

GH2:
fire up chainsaw and wait (and take out homeless dude while waiting)

[snail] sidestep (-1 diff totem, -1 diff mirror)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 5) [WP]

[snail] sidestep back
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 4, 7 (Success x 2 at target 5) [WP]

[snail] counter fucking ambush gorehound 2!
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 7, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] OK, guess not. same inits. new round. declares:

GH1
2 rage
1. chain grapple
2-3. tighten garrotte

lukas - 3 rage, split action 1. keeping back to wall.
1a. spur claws GH2
1b. spur claws GH1
2,3,4. biting GH2, then 1.

GH2
3 rage
1-4. chainsaw attacks

[snail] GH 2 chainsaw (dex/melee -1 accuracy, +1 diff)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[snail] (damage str+3+2)
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[snail] spurclaws GH2 (dex+brawl -2 split)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6) [WP]

[snail] (damage str+5+1)
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 6)

[snail] GH2 soaks
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[snail] changing 1b: FINISH HIM! (bite) -3 split, +1diff.
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 5, 5, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] damage str+2+2
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 7, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] soak vs auto 1 damage
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1
reflexive WP to stand and fight
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 chain grapple (str+brawl)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[snail] resist grapple
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[snail] GH2 WP to stand and fight (-5 dice)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 4, 6 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] GH2 runs

[snail] lukas rage 1 -- finish GH 2 FFS (-2 diff back attack)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 8 at target 3)

[snail] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 16 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] (GH2 soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 5, 8, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] (GH2 ded)

[snail] GH1 WP check
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 7, 7 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 rage 1 -- chain attack, flanking
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[snail] GH1 damage
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[snail] lukas rage 2 - spur claws on GH1 (+1 diff for changing actions)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 7)

[snail] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 chain attack, frontal, +2 diff from spur claws
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 10, 10 (Success x 1 at target 9)

[snail] GH 1 damage
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 5, 6, 6, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] lukas soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[dice notes: at this point he is past 7 damage and must rage revive]

[snail] rage back
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]

[snail] rage 3
bite, -5 dice (owie)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[dice notes: actually shouldn't have taken -5 dice here. frenzy negates that.]

[snail] damage. HAIL KAHSEENO.
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[snail] soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] (new round. declares:
gorehound out of rage, splits actions:
1a. throws chain to entangle
b. runs to pick up dead buddy's chainsaw

lukas, in a frenzy:
3 rage
1a/1b, 2, 3, 4: biting)

[snail] 1a
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5)

[snail] damage
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] gorehound soaks
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[snail] 1b
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[snail] damage
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] gorehound attempts chain entangle
dex+ath diff 7 for throw
-2 dice damage
+2 diff spur claws
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 10 (Success x 2 at target 9) [WP]

[snail] resisted entangle roll
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] GH1 1b - picks chainsaw up
lukas 2: bite through chain
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5)

[Administrator] Yvonne Miyake, welcome to In Character Room (Now)

[Administrator] Milo, welcome to In Character Room (Now)

[snail] (hey! occupied room! *grin*)

[Administrator] Yvonne Miyake has switched to In Character Room (Night)

[Administrator] Milo has switched to In Character Room (Night)

[snail] damage vs chain
Dice Rolled:[ 15 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 6)

[snail] chain is officially f'ing dead.
lukas 3: bite GH1
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[snail] damage vs GH1
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[snail] (er -- 2 extra damage die due to back attack, bite diff)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 6, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[snail] lukas 4: biting GH1 already ffs
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 7 at target 3)

[snail] damage vs GH1
Dice Rolled:[ 15 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[snail] GH 1 soak
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[snail] (GH 1 ded. combat concludes!)