ic How to Build a Better Scythe

[Fox]

"It would be wonderful to hunt there," Wraith pondered aloud, her blade-hand melting back down into a four-fingered but otherwise normal limb. She flexed the hand once before dropping it down to meet the other behind her back. "Unfortunately, I do not know that we would wish to stay that long, if we are likely to anger anyone. Another time, perhaps."

Her eyes tilted in a way that would probably reflect a smile if she had a mouth. Her humming voice sounded like it was smiling, anyway. "I am fine with the plan, however. I trust Ghost Girl's work, and we seem well-equipped for danger."

[trollthumper]

"Oh, all sorts of beings!" declared Comrade Frost cheerfully. "Jotunheim is Útgarðr, or as you say, 'beyond the fence'". Animatedly, he walked around the wards and signs made by Kimber before his arrival, deftly avoiding smudging so much as a line. "Is primordial wilderness of Norse tales, beyond the laws of men and gods, home to all the great beasts of Norse legend!" He gestured in the air. "Brunnmigi, the fox who defiles wells, in ways too foul for the ears of ladies to hear! Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, four stout deer with unnatural hungers for the very flesh of the world, giant squirrels who are father and mother of all lies, all stalking deep, dark forests and frozen mountain peaks where winter never does break!" He grinned and gestured expansively to the young heroes "But is not so bad, eh? There is also goat that gives mead from udders, and cow that brings life with her milk. And jotun themselves, who are kind folks despite what you have heard." He hmmed, and went on. "Jotun have been game in Aesir hunts for uncounted years. This has made them...occasionally cranky with outsiders. But all will go well, I am sure." He winked at Kimber. 

"

"There are also gigantic ice boars," said Temperance. "They can be tempestuous. Many of the jotunn raise them as pets, however, so if one of them comes running at you, it may just be looking to be scritched behind the tusks."  She was trying not to show that the rest of the fauna from Comrade Frost's little list was unsettling her. What else was there - angry warrior cats? Badgers that spat acid? It had been bad enough dealing with those weird half-formed jotunn when the heart of Ymir had fallen to Earth, and those were the things that had been pulled out of the oven before they were fully baked. What did the rest of the ecosystem look like?

Still. This was for the better of Kimber. And besides. She'd have a lot of stories to tell when this was done. 

 

[Tiffany Korta]

“I’ve been accused of many things Dimitri but I’ve never been accused of being a lady.” Lucy replied to Frost with a smile.

She wasn’t an expert on occult matters like some of those here but she’d managed to pick up quite a bit since she woke up.

“So to summarize it’s  a place in between and like all such places it will challenge us in ways both physical and mental. And we’re going to pull down massive magics that will possibly draw  the attention of even more powers things.” she paused for a beat  before adding “So when do we start?”

[Electra]

Koshiro gave Eve a grin and a wink as the conversation moved on, before turning his attention to learning about the dangers of Jotunheim. "All right, you've got your lying squirrels, carniverous deer, foxes who jerk it into wells, plus hostile terrain, cold weather, and people who aren't going to be happy to see us. And that's before we get our magric on." He raised one arm and the cranes that had been perched on the beams of the ceiling rose en masse and began swooping around once more. A phalanx of several hundred dive-bombed Koshiro all at once, splatting into him and flattening out into a paper suit of armor that covered his entire body. "Next time let us know ahead of time, I'd have brought my mittens!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Maybe I don't call as much as I should," said Citizen with a grin Eve's way, "but when my friends call, I answer. Even if it means we have to go running across dimensions so Kimber can cut things," he added, teasing his friend. More loudly, for the benefit of the others, "I'm sure we'll be fine," said Sharl, who was concerned but not terribly worried. So some creatures from this dimension had made it through the barrier back when it was thinner and frightened a bunch of primitive Terrans into worshiping them - how bad could it possibly be over there. "Ghost Girl, Wraith, and Comrade Frost all know something about the terrain, we're all badass Terran or Terran-associated warriors - we can take a bunch of giant animals, even if they have no sense of hygiene." 

Frost beamed at Koshiro; from the look in his blood-red eyes, he liked the cut of this young fellow's jib. "Generally he only voids in them - doesn't sound so bad until you remember he is size of bus and volume is...well, you will see when we get there!" He winked at the boy, then turned his attention to Lucy. "You are always lady to me, Miss Lucy," he said, his voice very distinct as he took her hand. "Was sorry to hear about...you know, space man," he said with a wave up to the sky. "Is too bad." 

"But it doesn't..." Tarva trailed off, shot a look at Kimber, and suddenly smiled as if all her worries about the soulless automaton were gone. "Oh, I'm sure it will be fine. We'll work together and fight together, and all become the best of friends!" When she smiled that big, her eyes got big too, pools of white and black in her pale face. 

 

 

[Gizmo]

"Best behaviour doesn't mean you have to do the fake-happy thing," Kimber began to protest in a low murmur next to Tarva before letting the matter lie with a faint frown. This obviously wasn't the time to get into all of that and if the bravado and forced cheer made the shadow priestess more comfortable around such a large group of unfamiliar people then it wasn't really fair for her to object. "It'll be okay," she promised before speaking up and addressing everyone. "It'll be okay! Animals love me except for the ones that don't! Don't worry too much about the cold, either, the portal should attune everybody to Jotunheim enough that you won't just freeze solid immediately or anything! If anybody's going to remember to plan for exposure it'd be me, eh? Dead girl jokes!" She laughed herself, either oblivious to the macabre nature of the jest or just unbothered by it.

"Seriously, though, thank you guys so much. So, so much! I knew I could count on you!" Waving everyone closer, she instructed, "C'mon to the center of the rink. I got it all set up to make it easier to bring through three groups of three besides me." Noticing some of her friends doing a headcount and noticing a discrepancy the phantom coughed awkwardly. "Um. Well. ...Citizen doesn't really count for this. Oh, and you should hold on tight to Hayley, Siobhan! Actually, everybody should probably hold hands, that's not a bad idea!" She closed her eyes and stretched her hands out, feeling for the lines of magic she'd prepared before stopping abruptly and snapping her fingers. "Oh! And hold your breath, if you need to breathe! Almost forgot that bit! Okay, for real now!"

Focusing again, Kimber's casual outfit rippled, blurring out of focus for an instant before resolving into a tattered reaper's cloak with the hood casting shadows over her face. A beat later she shot up into the air, nearly reaching the ceiling before diving straight back down, passing through the exact center of the ice and the pattern of runes as disappearing below. For a long, pregnant pause nothing happened. Just as someone opened their mouth to ask if the spell was working the ice exploded with blinding blue light and a deafening crack, the solid surface under their feet reduced to flying shards and plunging them into frigid water that had no place being under the artificial rink. There was a horrible sensation of being pulled downward, picking up speed as they rushed away from the surface, the flaring light giving way to featureless darkness as cold seeped into the core of even those in the group who should have been immune to such feelings.

Just before it could become unbearable the sensation was suddenly gone and the heroes were landing with various degrees of grace on snow covered ground, dry and no cooler than the last days of autumn in Freedom City. The white plain stretched out behind them, making it difficult to judge the scale of the jagged mountains on the horizon, while the edge of a forest dominated the landscape in front of them. The trees might have been rowan or spruce if those trees had had pale white bark dotted with black and hanging with icicles, the smallest trunks as wide around as a small car and tall enough to cause vertigo. Kimber was floating nearby near the shoulder of a young man with blue-tinged skin and dressed in dark furs, perhaps a dozen and a half feet tall. With a wide grin, the ghost threw her arms wide. "Ta-daaah~!"

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox just blinked and looked around, unphased. She'd seen weirder. Hayley on the other hand was a bundle of nerves, twitching and spinning around down the front of her robes. Seemingly unconcerned with her surroundings, she fussed and patted the raccoon until she quietened and lay still. Interdimensional travel was never fun. 

She straightened up, and turned, surveying their surroundings. Yep. Definitely Jotunheim. One of the Nine Realms. Land of frost and giants. She imagined this was what forests on Earth looked like to smaller prey animals. Hell, on this plane, they probably counted as one of those prey animals. Especially next to the giants. Like the one Kimber floated next to.

"Greetings," said Equinox formally, inclining her head enough to seem respectful, without being deferential. Kimber seemed unconcerned, but it generally did well to not seem weak on other planes. It was like facing sharks in the sea. Even if they had no interest, you'd still be much less at home than them. "My name is Equinox. Pleasure to meet you... ?"

[trollthumper]

The big frost giant let out a friendly laugh at seeing the crowd. "I see you brought many friends with you, Kimber." He looked across the crowd, pausing briefly upon seeing Dmitri, then locked eyes with Temperance. "Good to see you again as well, daughter of ice. As for the others... I am Velkr, blood of Thrivaldi and son of Jotunheim. We welcome you to the wilds of our world. It is not the great halls and caves of the Issting, but it is our home."

"We're glad that you've allowed us into your homestead for this endeavor," said Temperance, stepping forward. "How is Snorri, by the way?"

"He's much better on his home soil. He's been digging up truffles like Ratatoskr hoards acorns." Velkr turned to Kimber. "I would offer to take you back to my farm and offer you the hospitality of homestead... but I have a feeling you know where you wish to go. And the festivities can wait until after this is all done."

[Fox]

"That may be for the bes--"

Wraith's sentence disappeared into a surprised, warbling hum as she stepped forward and disappeared...or, mostly disappeared, anyway. For a beat she didn't say or do anything, a metal head sticking out of a deceptively-deep patch of snow, before she made a disgruntled sound and slowly rose up on some unsettlingly spider-like legs that pierced down to solid ground better-suited to holding her weight. "Mmm. That may be for the best," she continued, with as much dignity as she could manage. "I suspect we will all want a chance to relax once Ghost Girl's task is complete."

[Tiffany Korta]

The cold didn’t bother Lucy anyway, even the preternatural cold of Jotunheim. Actually she had to remind herself who strange this should seem to her, standing in the snow looking at a giant shouldn't seem so... normal. And she was among a bunch of people who also thought this was something fairly normal, though that was a danger in itself.

“Please to meet you Velkr I look forward to meeting you in less pressing times.” she paused and looked at Kimber “How long do you need to set all this up? I would guess trouble is already on the way.”

[Gizmo]

Introductions were made quickly as the group began trekking through the snow and into the woods, Kimber confidently leading the way. Velkr was particularly interested the colourful patterns of Koshiro's armor and the seamless construction of Sharl's 'plate mail'. For the latter Jotunheim was an eerily quiet void bereft of wireless signals or satellites, only slightly less unsettling for being expected. The former at least didn't have to worry about his origami becoming soggy: his body heat alone wasn't nearly enough to melt the preternatural snow.

"Oh, I'm sure nobody's even noticed!" Kimber was assuring Lucy cheerfully, weaving around the impossibly large trees. "We haven't even broken any rules yet! Well, I mean, besides bringing a small army into Jotunheim without using using the Bifröst but Heimdall seemed like such an easy-going guy, he won't mind! Probably!" Further discussion was cut short as a low, primal bellow sounded beyond the massive hill they were climbing up, followed by a thunderous crack of bone on wood with enough force to send a trunk wider that Citizen's robot body was tall careening to one side, knocking loudly against other trees. Between them the heroes could make out fur and curving horns amounting to a creature shaped like a bison and larger than an elephant, battering a path through the woods with its imagination beggaring skull. Behind it two similar creatures replied with bellows of their own.

Velkr reached grimly for the great axe strapped to his back. "Aurochs."

[Avenger Assembled]

Frost kept up an animated conversation with the Frost Giant about local politics, glad to find someone else interested in the Nine Realms. He'd been here many times in the last seventy years, albeit sometimes not in a friendly way, and for the most part seemed to be treating it as a vacation despite the way the frigid weather gnawed at him, even toasting the health of Velkr's jarl with his still-piping hot thermos. At least until the monsters showed up.

-

"This is fascinating," said Citizen, his automated voice ringing out through the forest. He'd given a quick greeting to the native but then taken to the air, the faint whine of his internal engines audible as he hovered above the tree-line. Artificially amplifying his voice, he shouted down below, "I CAN SEE A STAR IN THE SKY THAT LOOKS LIKE SOL; IT MUST BE A DIRECT PARALLEL! IS THE ENTIRE PLANET LIKE THIS, OR ARE THERE TEMPERATE CLIMATES?" To his credit, when the great beasts broke through the forest, he abandoned his scientific inquiry and zoomed down to join the others, interposing himself between the squisher beings below and raising his metal fists. "A little wildlife, eh? C'mon, big horns, you're...you're pretty big, but I've seen bigger!" 

-

"Are we on their land?" exclaimed Tarva, leaping behind Comrade Frost with alacrity. "Do we need to make a sacrifice?" 

-

"Hah-hah, no," said Frost, eying the shadow witch as the oncoming trio bore down on them. "Take your hand off knife handle," he added sternly, before going on, "Avoid line of direction with beasts!" in a loud voice that reached the others. "Will keep charging even when knocked out!" 

[Fox]

Wraith made an awful, metallic rattling noise at the unexpected threat, but when she saw the aurochs she almost looked...excited. She hunched in the snow like a cat that had seen something shiny, and on some unseen signal she took off across the snow like a - well, like whatever she was supposed to be.

Halfway there she ditched the spider-legs for something reverse-hinged with wide, snow-grasping clawed feet; her hands disappeared entirely, flowing out into a pair of scythes that whipped through the air on boneless tendrils to slice into the fur of the first beast. Unfortunately, from the matted clippings and lack of blood, she appeared to have only gotten the fur. "They are sturdy and well-protected," she shouted back, skidding to a stop and hunching, studying the aurochs for behavior or vulnerabilities. "Strike hard, if you can! I do not know that they are very...<what is the word, English...>....ah, nimble!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy had expected trouble and her it was, though she didn’t think it was due to anything Kimber had done. Beside now was probably not the time to worry about the why and concentrate on the what to do. As she dug in her heels trying to get purchase in the snowy grounds she remembered the old fresco from of Knossos of the women leaping the bulls, they were probably of a similar type to the one the girls faces as it bared down on them.

Luckily for Lucy she wasn't planning on leaping the bull instead she grabbed the bull by the literal horns to halt in progress with a strength well beyond the tiny frames.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hmm." Citizen hovered in the air for a moment, watching the brief melee. He'd been in a lot of super-battles in his day, especially in the last year or so, but fighting a rampaging animal was very different than a Terran or Tronikian criminal, or a monstrous Communion construct, for that matter. With that thought in mind, he flew up in the air, out of sight of the giant bulls and above the treeline, his sensors recording the awesome beauty of the landscape beneath before he moved with the speed of a Terran bullet, first flying away from the battlefield in order to work up the speed for a devastating, but hopefully well-placed, attack. With a crack, he rocketed through the trees, weaving between the giant trunks to throw the aurochs males off-balance, and to set up his blow. When he finally hit, he struck the creature in a spot where natural predators could never reach it - between the two giant horns that were surely meant for gutting wolves the size of city buses. The blow smashed the creature's head down, vibrations traveling through the braincase, and Sharl watched with satisfaction as it slumped to the ground with a low bellow. "Got one! They're easier than they look! Try to stun them instead of getting through the thick hide!" he called to the others, his artificial voice amplified. 

 

Edited July 28, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[trollthumper]

"Think I've got a way to do that," said Nick. He opened his mouth, aiming to attune himself to the dry rasp of the Fates and their foreboding chime of fates best not thought about... only to realize the flaws in this plan. Two gigantic cows the size of large tanks, with horns that could likely gore the Statue of Liberty. The fact that they'd been stampeding towards them was bad enough, and the aurochs had been in control when doing that. Having them run at full speed, blinded by fear, not minding where they trod or what - or who - was in the way... very bad idea. 

Let's be surgical, then. Witch light gathered in Nick's hands, make from the flickering essence of the fallen. Something of Jotunheim was leaking into it, too - usually it was a cold, pale blue flame, but while it was still cold, it now looked like he was holding the Aurora Borealis in his hands. Real pretty. Shame I gotta use it to put a hell-cow to sleep...

The ball flew from his fingers, striking one of the aurochs right between the horns. 

...but it's better than getting trampled. 

[April]

It was like old times.

Even though it had been a while since Young Freedom fought together as a whole (only lacking Cobalt Templar to make this a proper reunion), Blue Fox found herself falling back into the rhythm of things and the familiar supporting role she had occupied on that team.  Having noted the amount of effort Citizen put into his offensive, the petite telepath moved to distract the mighty beast so it wouldn't take advantage of her friend and former teammates temporary weakness.

[Gizmo]

Kimber's first instinct was to try to restrain the charging beasts in a layer of ice but she'd learned from her encounter with Velkr's pet boar. Instead she took a moment while Eric's light show and Eve's telekinetically enhanced acrobatics had the massive creatures distracted to swoop down next to Tarva with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we deal with this sort of stuff all the time! Just stay behind everybody where it's safe and we'll be done soon, okay?" She didn't really doubt that the shadow priestess could hold her own if push came to shove but the last thing any of them wanted was a desperate Tarva backed into a corner.

Making a beeline for the last of the aurochs still looking for a fight she let an immaterial hand sink through its fur and thick hide, raking her fingers through the bull's essence. "C'mon, big fella, take a nap...!" The beast didn't seem particularly impressed by her attempts to weaken it, its size making the phantom a gnat by comparison as it snorted out a blast of preternaturally frigid air through its nostrils. It tossed its head angrily and to Ghost Girl's shock the flat of its horns connected with her ephemeral form as solidly as a tree trunk falling atop an unsuspecting bush. The poltergeist was tossed back through the air with a startled yelp, sinking halfway into the snow where she landed with a pained groan.

[trollthumper]

Temperance watched with shock as the young ghost went soaring through the air. She'd seen the ghost get affected by things that were... half-unreal? More real than real?... before, starting with the half-formed ice giants from last winter. But it was still a shock to see her get hurt - and somewhat infuriating. Fortunately, she had plenty of ammo to use in taking out her frustration. 

"You like to play rough, do you?" she shouted over the winds towards the auroch. "We'll see how rough you are when you're hamburger." She started regretting the words as soon as they were out of her mouth - do they even have hamburgers in Jotunheim? - but she couldn't exactly pause. The snow leapt into her hands, melting and resolidifying into crystalline bullets. They flew out towards the auroch, aimed right towards its hide. Hopefully, they'll actually do something this time. If not, I'm gonna have to improvise. 

[Electra]

"Hey, not nice!" Koshiro shouted at the aurochs as he hurried in the direction Kimber had flown. A wave of his hand sent a cloud of eager paper birds peeling away from him and arrowing towards the head of the aurochs, harrying it like angry starlings and freeing their boss to move. 

Koshiro's progress had been slow even after hauling himself out of a waist-deep snowdrift on arrival, til he'd fashioned himself a broad pair of paper snowshoes to let him walk on top of the snow-covered ground instead of wading through it. Now he left weird dish-shaped prints as he walked, but at least he was able to catch up with his old teammate. Without thinking, he offered a hand to help her out of the snow. "Hey, you okay?" 

[Ecalsneerg]

Equinox raised her wand above her head, swirling it in a tight, small arc. She gradually widened and widened it, arm slightly pained as she tried to avoid jostling the raccoon hiding in the front of her coat. Wind whipped around and around, pulling up clumps of hoarfrost and ripping down icicles from the trees into a vortex of shards and splinters. 

"Chionothýella!" she yelled suddenly, quickly wavering between the two huge beasts. She decided upon the one not bedevilled by paper cranes. She flicked her wand at it, and the shards exploded downwards around her, then rushed towards the auroch, trailing frost and wind and glowing white sparks. The great beast was obscured for a moment or two as it was enveloped by the artificial blizzard, only a great thudding noise audible through the flurries of snow. When they cleared, it lay on its side, partially embedded into the ground beneath its feet from its sudden collapse.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Ecalsneerg

[Avenger Assembled]

For his part, Comrade Frost showed no such scruples about attacking the blind. Narrowly avoiding Equinox's wintry strike, a blast that practically froze what little air was in his undead lungs, Frost erupted into smoke and mist as he entangled himself around the legs of the last standing giant cow. A faint patina of frost creeped up the limbs of the blindy stumbling creature, but it showed no signs of stopping. Damn! I suppose I should have tried harder - opened a deeper vortex. Unbidden, an image of himself in the long-dead past came to mind; a Ukranian winter, standing knee-deep in cattle manure, the stink of it in his arms, a bottle in the mouth of a newborn calf who had so far refused to suck. Of course we had to slaughter mother and babe both  He'd always had a soft spot for cattle after that, even wild ones. 

- 

"Kimber! No!" Tarva erupted in a cloud of black smoke just inches away from Koshiro, accompanied by two shadowy figures cut in an indistinctly humanoid shape. When she saw that Kimber's ally had the situation in hand, she turned to the last aurochs and began chanting, black, shadowy energy forming around her hands. Her shadowy 'companions' did the same thing, as if mirroring their master's spell, and when Tarva spoke her voice had grown rougher and more guttural - and distinctly dropped an octave. "I WILL FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR FLESH AND FEED IT TO YOUR YOUNG! SO SAYS TARVA THE BLACK!" 

[Fox]

Wraith watched the normally untouchable Ghost Girl fly through the air with notable surprise and distress, but by the time Tarva was pronouncing doom her three-eyed gaze was back where it belonged, and that gaze was upset. There was an unnatural, angry screeching noise like tearing steel and snarling wire as she took off toward the aurochs, but she didn't seem particularly equipped to hurt it - in fact, by the time she reached it she was almost completely streamlined and gel-like...all the better to wrench its mouth open and disappear, in an unsettlingly calculated and acrobatic motion that defied its confused and blinded thrashings, down its maw.

There was silence then, for a moment, before the first bit of silver metal spiked through its hide with a nauseatingly meaty noise.

And then another. And again.

When it crumpled and fell, it didn't seem to have a lot of intact innards left - exposing a bloodied, inhuman figure of sharp-edged blades and at least six scythe-tipped arms hunched in a carnage of its own making. And then she stood up, restoring herself to a more bipedal frame, the focus and wrath gone as she stepped out and retracted a few redundant limbs. "Is K-- is Ghost Girl okay? I do not know that I have ever seen her get hit before."

Edited August 5, 2015 by Fox

[Gizmo]

With a muffled sound that was more annoyed and confused than anything else, Ghost Girl righted herself, rising into the air until her feet were pointing in the right direction again. Giving her head a shake and rubbing her sternum tenderly, Kimber blinked blearily at Koshiro's proffered hand. Reaching out she poked an immaterial index finger a centimeter or two into the origami master's chest. "Just checking. I'm okay, it just-- oh!"

Recovering her bearings enough to notice Tarva and her shadow clones nearby, the poltergeist rushed forward. She wrapped her arms around the sorceress from behind, under one arm and over the opposite shoulder, forming parallel bands of pale, translucent blue over the writhing penumbra of Tarva's chest. "I'm okay, we're okay!" she insisted in a low, shushing tone, more distressed to see the other woman worked up than she had been at being unexpectedly tossed about like a ragdoll. She pressed her cheek into the crook of Tarva's neck and where spirit met shadow she was as palpably solid as she had been to the auroch's horns. "Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to scare you, I'm okay."

[Avenger Assembled]

Solidified again, Comrade Frost stared unhappily down (and up) at the pitiful remains of the giant cow. "Poor old girl," he said with a sigh, bending down over its remains. "Were we in your spot?" He bent down over the corpse and ran his hand through the bloody mess, the red liquid crystallizing at his touch. He pulled up his hand, covered in rapidly cooling blood and ice, and methodically licked it clean. "Might as well start butchering this poor girl," said Frost as he looked at Wraith, not appearing to blame her for the dead animal. "You ever butcher meat for humans, girl? I show you tricks. Your friends will need _meat_ for coming journey - and we could build a fire." 

Tarva hugged Kimber closely; one half of her face invisible and the other half obscured by Kimber's hair, with only one wide, pale eye visible for a moment. "I...I..." She growled into Kimber's head like a feral she-cat and seemed to swallow something that had threatened to erupt out her mouth. "We need to find the rest of them and kill them so that they can't hurt anyone else," she said, her voice raw and soft as if she'd burned her throat. 

"Hey, you guys all right down there?" said Citizen, making a landing amid the little group. "I saw a lot of...crazy stuff."