Arabelle

EN 2 -> gathering: 243397: ld 13: fail.

EN 1 -> gathering: 243229: ld 18: +1 material.

2, 21-24

1, 17-20

2, 13-16

"he didn't do anything. "the forest was his charge, you see. and there was no way out but through." margaret scratches the underside of the small skeleton's chin as one would a pet. just the same, it tips its head back. none of her friends have the faculties the living rely on to express themselves. neither can they speak. they can comprehend her though, and communicate in their own ways -- they like to bend towards her like magnets to let her know they are listening. "wasted. all of it. the bear could never have walked in his forest again. what is the point of treasuring it from the

"his name was callisto and he was dead, too." flowers. a corpse. stars. delicate lives were smote by the mere scent of the bear's curse and the waters of the shallow lake were brown with filth. strip the carcass of the last of its rotting flesh and it would have been a picture-perfect match with the rest of her friends, only, a bear is a bit too much for their first pet and margaret doesn't want it anywhere near her garden. her friends could only destroy themselves if handled correctly. "when we broke half, he started to project some kind of sob story. no one really looked thoug

she does anyway, and they all startle. the skeletons at her legs scamper off like frightened dogs, quite literally, as some of them fall over in the stampede and have to gallop on all fours, and the two that had been dozing on her lap push and shove at each other as they race to join the rest. a soft ‘thud’ out of her sight impels her to turn. halfway past the wide sliding door leading back to her house, a skeleton dressed in a doctor’s coat had dropped her med bag. its jaw drops comically low in surprise and it scratches its bald head with both hands. then it jumps up and down a couple of tim

(be with me in the sacred witchery of almostness which may makes follow soon on the sweet heels of passed afterday, margaret barely makes it a few steps into her villa before hangover sickness and exhaustion take reign of her and she faints right where she stands. she wakes up in a completely different part of her house surrounded by her friends. they are on the front porch overlooking the gardens and the artificial sun that keeps them all alive. there are arms around her: she is being loosely hugged from be

she doesn't drink. (sending the following to pollux.) (5) Rumbling Rum Party Favor | 10% INSTANT MASS HEAL | [>>] 234141, 234142, 234143, 234144, 234145 (5) Rumbling Rum Party Favor | 10% INSTANT MASS HEAL | [>>] 234105-2, 234105-3, 234108, 234112-1, 234112-2

some motherfucker. their backline is barely holding against the swarm and its parent is only three-fourths dead. jomei rushes forward to assassinate shub-niggurath. she flares out the side of her cloak, shaking off excess rain, the menu bubbles at her fingertips bright and thrumming, and she throws herself back into the dance. nine meters in front of jomei, an insect’s head snaps backwards, a needle embedded between its bulging thousand-eyes. its mouth opens in a wordless scream and a blade carves it permanent. the shadow of amaterasu, extending, slashes a half moon of space for her and her pa

half the first health bar on non-modified tech. and, her wound reopened the moment she hit it, some thorns. why all the fanfare, then? dozens of shub-niggurath's empty eyes fume at her, the flesh of its eyelids flowering open and shut. it is lying on a bed of butterfly corpses and she hears their fellows crying in grief. she bids the rest of them to depart and shifts her red eyes sidewards to a menu bubble she is holding open beneath the folds of her cloak. jomei, coming from the wrong side of town, is now circling back to meet her. she draws her cloak tighter around herself and drop

it doesn't move. it doesn't regard anyone in particular. it begins and ends its short address to the audience collective when the key in her hand reaches seventeen full rotations. fear bubbles through the crowd. a man spills out from the portal and hacks and coughs out water before struggling to a stand. he finds that half the tide has reversed, the wiser of the remaining lot clamoring for the exit. many had twisted around to face the source of the voice at their ear only to find that it wasn't there. the faceless entity raises its hand upwards to the sky. her red eyes follow the mot

forgot its entire face. always so annoying when that happens. "go. go." gloved hands shove a pair of stunned players to the side. she crosses the gap as the light of the portal winds down behind her -- it takes a mere second's rest, then it flashes again, bringing forth another group of eager yet unprepared adventurers -- and she pulls off her hood to bare her face; her tempestuous red eyes. she pushes her way to the front of the arriving crowd, sweeping an arm out to deter any player behind her from moving forward. everyone who had been near the entity had more or less bac

she cuts her--- it open from- shoulder to torso-- it staggers, breath heaving, inches an agonized step from the door towards jomei's silent taunt; its three limbs are twisted in all the wrong ways and it fruitlessly attempts to feel about its chest for the measure of the inflicted wound, and from the neck up, the clasp falling open and a muddied cloak spilling to the ground, its head is an insect's, membrane and exoskeleton sewn into human skin. a thin reedy whine whistles from its throat. the last sound it ever makes before the woman crushes its offending head with the blunt of