Tender Lumplings Everywhere, Life's No Fun Without A Good Scare [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The woods are dark and deep, but not particularly lovely. If anything, they feel dangerous, as if something terrible might come lurching out from behind any given tree and tear into the nearest warm body. What that terrible thing might be is anyone's guess. A cat with hands? Slenderman? Stegosaurus? Actual cannibal Shia LaBeouf? All of the above in a horrible mob? It's anyone's guess. But every dreamer will be absolutely convinced that there is something unspeakable out there, and that it's after them.

The dreamers have two things on their side. The first is that there is actually nothing dangerous lurking in these woods (with the possible exception of other dreamers). The pervasive terror the dreamers are feeling is just that: a rift-given feeling, nothing more and nothing less. That snapping twig or rustle in the undergrowth is almost certainly just a squirrel or something else equally harmless.

The second is that no dreamer is alone. They all will be reunited with - or introduced to - their dæmons, a source of comfort in this dark, intimidating wilderness. However frightened the dreamers might be, at least they have someone with them who definitely doesn't want them dead.

[OOC: as ever, any and all are welcome! You don't have to be in the game to join the fun. Dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. And the party only stops when you want it to; feel free to backtag forever.]

Comments

[bibliophale]

Aziraphale narrows his eyes and stands firm, unmoved by the threat or the weapon that backs it up. "I believe you've done enough," he says. "That 'xiǎo​xiǎo yī​ gè' is under my protection." Not sure what to make of the man's sudden burst of Mandarin, but it's scarcely relevant at the moment. Melanie and Niko's contributions he ignores for now; poor thing, always so well-intentioned, but he isn't about to hurt this upstart and he knows well enough, whatever happened, it could not have been due to Melanie being 'stupid'. No matter what she may have done or said, she is not the one firing on the defenseless.

Speaking of, that'll be quite enough of that, thank you. With a subtle flick of his wrist he alters the weapon's interior, subtly but enough to change the weight; no more bullets, only water. To Mal, he says, "You'll stand there, and you'll deal with me. I have no desire to harm you, but I will not allow you to touch her."

"I'm not going anywhere," says Orisa to Melanie, quiet but matter-of-fact. "Your blood can't harm anyone here, and regardless you can't harm me. It's going to be all right." She examines the wound briefly, then tilts her head to look at Nikolaos, so brave and vicious. "Come here, Niko, Melanie needs you." Better to diffuse the situation, if the animals are what's making this man jumpy.

Aziraphale wants to heal Melanie's wound - it will be the work of moments, but he needs to make contact with her, and he won't turn his back on this human just yet. Melanie will be fine, it is only a dream, but even in dreams this sort of behavior is unacceptable. "Explain yourself," he says coldly.

[captain_mal]

To Mal's mind, whoever this stranger is, he's acting downright rude.

First off, you don't just going showing up out of nowhere. Well, not unless you're looking to get yourself shot. In this case the fellow had been lucky enough seeing as Mal had just something of a misfire and his brain was taking it's sweet time catching up with the whole mess of a situation. Add to that being rightly preoccupied with the kid and, well, who goes and uses that as an excuse to go sneaking up on a man? 'Specially seeing as right at the moment time is not on their side.

It's hard to get a god look at Melanie, what with as small a creature as she is and seeing as Mal has a pair of wings, dog, and for some gorram reason a ruttin' snake now wrapped around her blocking his view. Mal might not be the most educated of folks but he's pretty certain that snakes can't sniff out blood like some kind of creeping coyote, and the large ones can rarely move all that fast or where it even came from....

But, no, of course Mal is the dangerous one here, not the giant snake that looks to be easily able to swallow that girl whole if it took to the idea. Yet here is this niǎo rén is trying to hold Mal back when he seems to be the only one around the least bit concerned about the girl lying there on the ground bleeding out, and without a proper look at her wounds Mal can't tell if the bullet is still lodged in there or not, causing even more damage. They need to get that out soon as possible, but suppose it's more important this guy show off whatever tricks he's got up his sleeves. Seems this whole gorram world is full of folks training to swindle hardworking types out of their well-earned coins. Probably doesn't even care about the poor kid, just looking for a way to show off is all.

Whoever he is, sure is protective for someone who couldn't be all that close to Melanie. After all, what sort of responsible adult lets a child go wandering through dark forests talking with strangers carrying guns and luring them out of trees? She all but told him she don't have no one to rely on, so he couldn't be anyone who looked in on her all that often. Also, seemed to understand language well enough. Sort of hùsheng knows well enough how to speak in both languages of this 'verse and then goes and only teaches a youngster one of them? Keeps her rather grounded, no wondered the poor thing don't know anything about ships.

Not that alone it's enough to end a man's life over, Mal reminds himself as he pulls his pistol out to make his point a little more clear. Just saying that he's accumulating reasons awful quick-like for a man he's just met.

At the same, Melanie seems to be familiar with the stranger, but suppose that's a given seeing as must be they come from the same backward circus show. So Mal figures whoever he is, he ain't nearly as important as saving someone never seen meant to get shooting the first place, who certainly don't deserve to loose an arm about it never mind worse. If Mal goes and kills someone Melanie knows don't seem likely she'll be very open to letting Mal get a look at that wound even if it's all in the name of trying to help. But hell if he ain't going to help her, and no niǎo-nǎo de guài​wu is about to stand in his way.

"Now, I'm telling you to back down," Mal growls, the end of his pistol pointed square in between his eyes. He shot her he'd damn well make it right, well, if he could just get this asshole out of his way. "Or else I'm going to have to-"

It's all done in one quick, sharp movement. Mal tosses the gun up just enough to grab it by the barrel, slamming the heavy butt of his pistol right into the angel's ear without hesitating that comes with a good conscious but plenty of practice pulling much the same trick on more than a handful of occasions. Good for knocking folks out so long as you ain't too worried about causing brain-damage.

[all_the_gifts]

At Orisa's call, Niko reluctantly backs down and returns to Melanie's side, his shaggy coat all but engulfing her uninjured shoulder and a portion of Orisa, as well. "I don't like this," he growls in an undertone. "He doesn't listen."

"He'll listen to Aziraphale," Melanie says with complete confidence. She might not like the way adults tend to dismiss her for her age (at least until they find out her IQ, which sometimes earns her a little respect), but she understands it, or at least isn't surprised by it. Mal's just another grown up who didn't take her seriously because she's young. But Aziraphale is old, and he's an angel - he's clearly an angel - so surely Mal will listen to him.

But he doesn't. He pulls out his gun again - as bad as a soldier, trying to solve everything by shooting at it - and Melanie stiffens in alarm. "Don't!" she objects, just as he changes his grip on the gun and swings it at the angel's head. Aziraphale staggers, and Orisa lets out a cry that's more indignant than pained, and Melanie is on her feet, staggering a little under Orisa's weight.

"NO!" she screams. Why is he doing this? "Stop! He's..." what? An angel, which any fool could see? Not a threat to her, which he's already made plain? Frightened, furious, she bellows, "He's mine!"

And they are not letting Mal hurt her angel.

Nikolaos doesn't change so much as sprout, neck and tail and all four limbs shooting outward and upward, head becoming bulbous, jaws widening to hold a truly appalling set of teeth, forepaws shifting into long, taloned fingers that flex menacingly. He towers over all of them, a deep growl rumbling in his cavernous chest, then lowers his head on its sinuous neck and fixes a large, red eye on the captain.

"You will not strike him again," thunders her jabberwock.

[bibliophale]

The strike is a surprise, which is appalling enough in itself, that Aziraphale allowed himself to be caught off guard. The worst he'd anticipated was a stream of water to the face. That hurts, and he stumbles enough that this absurdly bullheaded human gets past him, his hearing abruptly and briefly shorted out, now too muffled to hear anything but Melanie screaming - he turns his head sharply, in time to see her up, furious, and the ringing stops just in time to hear her call him hers.

That - that's - he doesn't even know how to begin to react to that. And he doesn't have time anyway. For a split second he just gapes at her. The human has brazenly (unsurprisingly) ignored Niko's command, even as immense and terrifying as he suddenly is, and is now on his kneels, close, too close to Melanie.

"Stop," he snaps, raising his hand. He freezes the human in place. He'll be able to breathe, observe, think, talk (though Aziraphale's keeping his finger on the proverbial trigger for that one), but he will not make another move toward her. "Enough. Don't hurt him, Niko. I'm all right."

He brushes himself off, disappears the sword and his wings, and stalks around the human to Melanie. He reaches out, and Orisa gladly crawls back up to his shoulders, allowing him to pick Melanie up.

"Everything's all right," he murmurs to her. Like that, her wound is healed, her blood is gone. Simple.

He turns on the human.

"If it is help you wanted to offer," he says, "perhaps you ought to listen to her next time."

[captain_mal]

"Stop!"

Mal has never been a particularly good one when it comes to following orders, especially when it's from persons he don't know nor cares to get to know in all honesty. So he doesn't suspect that just on account of the man looking like an angel that Mal is going to change his ways on that habit anytime soon. Hell, he's a sight more likely too -

Hmm... Well now, ain't that just the strangest thing?

The wet leaves crunch under his knees as Mal slips down to the ground, trying to reach out to Melanie. He doesn't just go grabbing her - he ain't a complete bèn dàn after all - knows if he were to going trying to force her to let him get a look at her arm that she's just going to continue freaking out on him which ain't at all what Mal wants, he's just trying to help her is all. Sure, her injury is mostly on his own account but that just makes it more his responsibility to check the damn thing, and right now that's all he's trying to get at. Be surprised how fast these wounds can bleed out or go bad, 'specially of some or even just a fragment of the bullet's lodged itself in there. If that's he case she's going to need some serious aid, and he don't mean some giant snake cutting off blood flow and a flaming sword to cauterization the wound as helpful as he's sure those sorts of tricks are when your injuries are from equally deceptive gimmicks they kind of which they keep employing though Mal has shown no patients for them.

Makes it even stranger that when the angel resorts to simply yelling commands at him - he's stronger than he looks, Mal will give him that much, that sort of blow should have knocked a man flat on his back and possibly left him there for a while to come - like after all his other mechanisms and con-acts this will be what finally gets Mal's attention.Yet like a child called out in a schoolroom Mal's hand stops halfway stretched out, hi fingers half curled out in offering to Melanie,just about as gentle as he could be when he really felt that wound needs attended to 'specially with such a slight, pale little thing probably ain't got much blood in her to lose. Weirder is how his other hand, sliding his pistol back in the holster in hopes it might help calm the girl's nerves somewhat seems to be just as stuck. Now that's notice it Mal finds he can't move a damn thing, every inch down to his damn toes are totally paralyzed.

Not just like he's gone still from the shock of being yelled at, nothing like that at all in fact, but he can't actually move a muscle, not for all he is worth, and he damn well strains near every one of them trying to get just about anywhere and the closest he comes is making some choked grunts, almost surprising in a way but it seems most of his face muscles work well enough.

"What the ruttin' hell have you done from me you bái​mù mā càode," Mal growls, and to say now that it might be a favor the girl can't understand him is something of an understatement, especially if Mal had any chance to unleash half of what is sitting right at the tip of his tongue. But before he went into the details over just what this man could go do and to who Mal wants some gorramn answers. Some kind of paralyzing drug, Mal suspects, but when he even had time to administer it how Mal missed such a thing, those are the real questions, ones he's betting he won't be hear much turthfullness on. "Best you cut the bullshit wèi​le Shén shèng​jié de pìyǎn seeing as you've got the costuming for it and all, angel." There's a real mocking sense to his smile and flirtations banter stuck on at the end, especially after all the rest of hadn't so much been spoken but growled, but just in case the stranger has any doubts what Mal's thoughts are on this whole act, well, there you have it.

And supposing he is some messenger from God than fine, have it your way old man, he's learned his lesson. Next time he doesn't try and help the kid, just lets them bleed out on the side of the road like a good Christian should.

[all_the_gifts]

Nikolaos is beyond outraged when Mal just blunders past him, and his neck twists to follow him as he starts toward Melanie. The girl stumbles backward a few paces, because despite Orisa's reassurances, she doesn't want her blood anywhere near a human, dream or no. Niko's jaws gape wide, ready to do what jabberwock jaws do… and then the captain stills, and Aziraphale tells him to stop. Niko pauses, his fangs a foot from Mal's back, then reluctantly withdraws with an angry huff of air that ruffles the man's shirt.

Melanie glances down at Mal's outstretched hand, frozen in place as if a spell has been cast (which, she supposes, it sort of has been), then shifts her focus to Aziraphale. The sword and wings are gone, and the second loss is disappointing, but he doesn't seem hurt so much as just bothered, and that is reassuring. She feels a little bereft when Orisa goes back to Aziraphale, but it's short lived because he picks her up, next, the wound on her arm healing in an instant, the blood gone as if it had never been there in the first place. She puts her arms around Aziraphale's neck, and Nikolaos lands on her stomach in the shape of a much smaller owl than before.

"He is an angel," Melanie says, looking down at Mal. It's not pleasant, seeing him locked in place down there, but she doesn't know what else Aziraphale could have done. Part of her wants to say more, to try and explain, but she's starting to wonder what the point would be. Nikolaos was right. He just doesn't listen. She frowns down at Mal, then turns to tuck her face into Aziraphale's neck. "Can we go?" she asks quietly. "I think we should go."

[bibliophale]

Aziraphale spares Mal a very nearly contemptuous glance at the mocking, too-familiar tone of 'angel' - only Crowley can call him that, thank you very much, and he's been known to punch people for the infraction - but it's hardly important now. The man is angry, that is no surprise - and Aziraphale doesn't like having to revoke anyone's bodily autonomy, but he wasn't really left with any other choice.

He hugs Melanie close, feeling an intense warmth for her in spite of everything around them, and letting that warmth spread a little to her. "Of course," he murmurs.

He shifts her to one arm, a rather difficult task when he is also supporting the weight of a large ball python and a very fluffy owl, and lowers one hand to make a dismissive, inconsequential gesture at the man behind him. He would never be so cruel as to let the man wait the dream out frozen like that - he'll make his own misery sure enough.

He releases Mal with the gesture, and in the next moment he, Melanie, and their companions are all gone.