Catch-all for Maul; Love is not the opposite of hate.

[survivalthroughhate]

Who: survivalthroughhate and you!
What: open & closed threads
When: Catch-all for February and March
Where: All over Trench

Content Warnings: Event warning for March, graphic description of broken nails



All starters in the comments, threads are marked open and closed! Will be adding more as the months goes on!

Comments

[siriusly]

With that assurance, Manabu commits to approaching and grabbing up the closed-up board, letting out a breath of relief in having it in-hand. He straightens back up, turning back to Maul with a nod.

"Let's find somewhere safer to work with this. Maybe some higher ground...but not a cliff."

[survivalthroughhate]

"We'll need to trek further on then," Maul said, gesturing to the gently sloping landscape ahead of them. If they kept walking, in a few minutes it would put them at a higher position than the rushing rivers which still threatened to sweep them away.

Once they'd gotten up to a more hilly area, Maul turned back to Manabu. "Alright, let's play and get one step closer to getting out of here."

[siriusly]

Manabu can feel his strength starting to reach its limits, legs burning and lungs screaming for want for rest, so when they finally reach some safer heights, he plops down with an exhausted puff, pulling the board out from under his arm and setting it on the ground between them, unfolding it to expose the dice and figures still there.

"Whose...which turn," he pants. "Should we...rapid-fire this? To the end? Or--"

[survivalthroughhate]

"I believe it is mine," Maul said. He hadn't rolled the flood which had occurred, which meant it had come from someone else. At the speculation of trying to quickly finish the game, he nodded. He eyed how many spots there were until the end of the board for both their pieces. "Let us try. Two or three rolls should get us to the end. Then this will be over."

[siriusly]

Manabu wipes his forehead and nods, bracing his hands on his knees as he sits cross-legged.

"Okay. Let's do it."

And they will. They'll roll quickly between each other to try to get ahead of the incoming hazards: a cloud of killer bees, living vines, quicksand, rampaging monkeys...it all burgeons up into one massive wave of jungle hell.

But Maul's piece slides up into the center of the board for the win, and just as the sound of incoming bees and howler monkeys reaches a deafening apex and Manabu feels his body starting to sink:

"SAY IT!"

[survivalthroughhate]

Maul's senses were all on high alert as they rolled, prepared for anything that might have been coming their way. With his ability to sense the life energies of anything that was around him, he could feel it the minute new dangers began to sprang to life.

The quicksand was the one where he started to panic and only knowing they were so close to the end kept him pressing onward. When Maul's piece slid onto the board, he yelled out the word that would save them. "JUMANJI!" Almost immediately, the two of them were spat back out into the real world with the echoes of the jungle still beating in their ears.

[siriusly]

From the raw chaos of those final turns to deafening...quiet...

Manabu gasps, sitting upright, sparking and bristling, still braced for another threat, but...

"It..." He looks around, seeing the familiar, grim rooftops of Trench.

It worked.

He lets himself exhale.

"Holy...holy crap..."

[survivalthroughhate]

In contrast, Maul just flopped back down onto the ground, feeling absolutely exhausted. That had been a difficult experience to get through but at least they'd both come out of it intact. "I am going to go home and I may stay there until next year rolls around."

Or until the Pthumerians forced him back out, one of the two.