03 . boat log!

[necrolord]

Who: necrolord and existing CR. If your character has met the Emperor and would respond positively to an invite, jump on in. (If you're not sure, ask me at ochrona!)
What: A voyage out to sea! This is a mingle log; feel free to toplevel and tag around.
When: Ambiguously around New Year's.
Where: The Pthumerian Ocean.

Content Warnings: Undead sailors, flesh-eating crabs, tentacles, corpses; Deer-standard levels of inherent fleshy horror. Note all the usual warnings of this character.

[ See John's toplevel for prompts, and feel free to tag in brackets or prose! ]

Comments

ten billion years later

[necrolord]

[ John is pretty sure someone could accuse him of keeping this kid around in the way movie supervillains keep fluffy cats. They might not even be wrong. It's just: look at him, he's so cute.

Also, enthusiasm and spooky horses are very important for morale. Now that they're losing light and the island has proved to hold nothing more exciting than murderous tentacles and murderous crabs, the kids have piled back onboard to complain about their adventures and reluctantly drink God's tea. He approaches Will with a chipped mug (two sugars) and a sleeve of soda crackers he'd bought to take pity on Harrow. ]

Find anything interesting out there?

[ He offers the mug, and turns to regard the spooky horse which has probably manifested, jumpscare-esque, from the shore to straight onboard. ]

And who's this handsome fellow?

[ This is the worst horse anyone has ever seen. ]

hell yeah hell yeah

[deadboywalking]

[Will still isn't the most athletic kid in Trench -- in fact, he might actually be the least -- so he's very sweaty and out of breath. He'll happily take the mug from...the guy who owns the boat (not sure what his name is, still, not a priority) with a grateful smile.]

Tentacles. [This is said before Will scarfs down half the sleeve of crackers in a couple bites. Then he smiles at the truly terrible, drippy horse, who is looking at Jod very intently out of soulless dark eyes.] Marshmallow. He was a horse back in Deerington, but now he's also an Omen.

[Marshmallow is somehow looking directly at Jod, despite normal horses having their eyes on the sides of their heads. Are his on the front? Can anyone say definitively? He's an abomination who's going to delicately nibble on a cracker offered by Will.]

[necrolord]

Marshmallow.

[ He says this with wonderment. He says it with respect. It is the best name for a horrifying possibly-undead abomination he has ever heard, and the God of Necromancers has named a lot of possibly-undead abominations. ]

Pleased to meet you, Marshmallow.

[ This horse is going to kill him. He is a little afraid. It raises some fascinating questions about the state of this kid's soul. ]

Is that common, Omens being carried over from somewhere else?

[deadboywalking]

[Said horse looks intently at boat-guy, moves it's jaw a couple times like it's chewing something and then -- vanishes, Cheshire-cat-style.

For the moment.

Will is unbothered, preoccupied with cocoa.] I don't think so, no. Mike's is an iguana. [Said like everyone should just know who Mike is.] But Marshmallow's important, so he came with us, I guess?

[necrolord]

[ That's probably normal. God, still faintly impressed, turns back to the boy.

He nods along to this pronouncement. He has no idea who Mike is. ]

He seems like a pretty special horse.

[ This is said in the hedging way of a man reluctant to commit to horse as the word for that creature. ]

I hear we've got wild unicorns, locally, but that they're not too friendly.

[deadboywalking]

Yeah, he's pretty cool. [Crackers polished off, Will returns his attention to the cocoa.] He doesn't usually like people, though, sorry. I mean, he likes me and Mike. But he doesn't really talk to anyone else.

[Curious now:] Do you have an Omen? [He hasn't seen one, but maybe the ship is the Omen? That tracks.

Then he huffs out a laugh.] Nah, they're not friendly. I don't think any of the wild animals around here are. That's...pretty normal for a place like this, though. Everything wants to kill you.

[necrolord]

Mine likes people even less.

[ This he says in tones of good-natured sympathy, as though apologizing for a badly-behaved cat. ]

I'm starting to get that idea. Even the ravens seem a bit rude.

[ (It's mutual.) ]

[deadboywalking]

Oh. Is it...the boat? [He has to ask, okay? He just needs to know.]

Yeah, which kinda makes sense. [Another meditative sip of cocoa.] Ravens are sort of creepy. But evil unicorns?

[necrolord]

[ He blinks, then breaks into a little smile. ]

If only. Can you imagine? I would win every game of who has the cooler Omen.

[ To the evil unicorns, he raises his own drink like a toast. ]

This world has a very distinct aesthetic, I'll give it that. Wonderful commitment to the bit. You never know what dark and spooky twist might be just around the corner, and personally I approve.

[deadboywalking]

[Will tilts his head slightly, because that's two denials in a row, however subtle, to say what his Omen is. But the kid can take a hint, and he doesn't ask a third time. Instead Will polishes off his cocoa and sets the cup on a nearby crate. Marshmallow re-materializes to lick it clean.]

I guess. Sometimes I wish it had an, uh..."aesthetic" with more technology. And less cobblestones.

[necrolord]

[ Great, that's another normal thing for a horse to do. Wonderful. Is a horse's tongue usually that long and horrible? ]

Fair point. I think everyone here runs on moonlight and blood, which, again, does sound very cool. Might not be the most reliable or close to home.

[ He is being generous, here; at home, everything does run on blood. ]

[deadboywalking]

[It's a prehensile tongue, which is cool and normal for a horse to have. :)]

It's kinda cool, yeah. My blood turns white in the moon, which is sorta...gross and cool at the same time. [Notably, Will bites back the question about what kind of blood the boat guy has. He doesn't seem to like questions.] But it's definitely nothing like home. No arcades or anything.

[necrolord]

[ He notices, and appreciates it. Conscientious kid. Good instincts. ]

Oh, I'm sure we could rig something up. Not sure how far I'd trust it, though. The arcade games here are probably played for souls, or teeth instead of tickets... whack-a-monster in the literal sense, ring toss but with cursed jewelry...

[ He taps his chin as though seriously considering. ]

Maybe we should set one up.

[deadboywalking]

[Cursed jewelry sounds awesome, what do you mean. Will actually perks up at the idea, smiling a little wider.] That...actually sounds kinda cool. I mean, maybe not the, uh...soul part. Or the teeth part.

But whack-a-monster would be fun. [Marshmallow concurs. Or he's having a vision of the future, it's hard to tell what that horsey expression means.]

[necrolord]

I think teeth are pretty cool. [ He says this totally straight-faced, apparently earnest. ] Where I'm from, you can make a lot of neat stuff with bone. Very versatile building material. No matter what you need, you'll always feel a little cooler saying 'oh, sure, it's made of bones and magic.'

Anyway, we've got no shortage of monsters on offer, if you wanted extreme whack-a-monster.

[deadboywalking]

Really? Like...carve it into stuff, or -- [Oh, nope, no, he's talking about magic. Will is a very Nerdy Boy, so he immediately makes the connection:] Like...necromancy stuff?

Maybe not like...the tentacle ones. I think I've had enough of those guys.

[necrolord]

Bingo. [ He breaks into a smile. ] It's not just piloting skeletons, you know. Anything flesh, bone, or spirit... and more besides. There are whole schools of magic within necromancy. Ever-expanding fields.

But I'm with you on the tentacles. We have a bit of an overabundance, locally, between the monsters and the squid.