John

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Late happy birthday, I guess.

Majestic jellyfish.

Haku u scary.

Meanwhile, will try to conjure the knock-mushroom-into-pool post; I'm not sure if I'll succeed. I'll be away tomorrow so if that post doesn't appear soon enough I'd say just go ahead and do it yourselves? Laughs.

Also, reminder for Ace: fungi are technically not plants.

6 AM...Yesterday

Character sheet submitted via PM. Both sheets complete. Awaiting review.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

"Hey, Leila. Do you think you can shoot that thing in its eye... or at least in those glowy things that look like eyes?

The fight scene was now a mess. With all the mycelium shooting through the air here and there slashing in every direction, it was a little hard to keep track of all that was going on. There were bursts of light and some sizzling sounds and the howls and cries of both the humans and the monstrosity of a fungus. Leila did, however, hear Ace’s call as the swordsman was busy fending off the aggressive mushroom tissue.

Arrow to the mushroom’s eye.

Leila considered the possibilities of such a course of action, while she also devoted much of her attention to evading the attacks herself. The monster was hurling its claws around and continuously moving as it launched the vines, and it took Leila much effort to arrange steps to keep herself out of the hit zone of each offense. Ace was also too close to the mushroom for Leila to be sure not to accidentally hit her, and Leila was also too far away herself. Moving target, distractions, and a lack of foothold meant that it would be near impossible to pull of a feat as Ace instructed.

Unless….

Leila jumped onto a nearby rock, just as another vine crashed into the wall behind the space on which she was just standing. Crouching on the little boulder gave her enough time in a stable position, even if the window didn’t last for long. She reached into her quiver and pulled out two arrows. Under the light of the fluorescent blue crystals, the yellow beams from the monster’s eyes, and the dim green light from the trinket on her necklace, she drew and took aim while keeping the other arrow held between two fingers of her right hand.

Modification of plan: arrow to mushroom, not necessarily eye.

The resonating sound of a released bowstring, and a dull signature of impact as the arrow buried itself into the monster’s shoulder, throwing off its aim of another swing of its claws originally directed at one of the other humans.

Leila rolled to the side as angry tendrils of fibre tissue flooded what was her location moments ago, dodging them only barely. The focus of the glowing yellow eyes of the enraged mushroom turned her way. It knew she was there. She scrambled, in a series of moves not exactly elegant but effective nevertheless, off the side of the boulder and to the edge of the open flat space of the cave floor.

The monster ceased attacking from a distance and its feet started to bring its weight accelerating forward. Leila watched, somewhat nervously, as the mushroom charged at alarming speeds in her direction. She watched and figured. Her weight in comparison to the monster. How fast she could move. At this rate...maybe yes, if there was no sudden change in the rate of acceleration. It was also going straight towards her. Predictable path. a good thing. She had seconds to decide and her conclusion was yes.

In a series of maneuvers timed almost perfectly timed as the mushroom man lunged with it’s slashing claws, Leila jumped out of the way and clung to a ridge on a nearby wall behind her. She rotated the arrow in her hand into a reverse grip, feathers facing up and head in a direction perpendicular to her arm, as she pushed herself off the wall - in the opposing direction of the proceeding monster that hasn’t had enough time to change directions -

- and at the moment of collision she realized something went horribly wrong.

She only slowed the mushroom down to an extent with the first arrow she fired. She estimated it to be almost just enough to stop it completely.

The mushroom was heavier than she initially thought.

She saved herself from crashing right into the ground behind by clinging on to the rim of the mushroom’s umbrella head with all the strength that she had. She managed to hold on - she felt the trinket’s glow intensify as she did, and several times the monster swung its claws above his own head and missed just so narrowly - she kept low enough not to have been hit. This might still work. Just might. And with one time effort she swung herself forward just enough.

Stab.

Completion of second section of modified plan: arrow to eye of mushroom, not necessarily shot.

The eye wasn’t going to regenerate anytime soon if the arrow wasn’t removed first. The monster growled in pain and blindly continued in its rage forward - and Leila knew that was where her miscalculations would come into effect. The momentum carried by her lunge wasn’t large enough to slow down the mushroom to as slow as she needed. She didn’t have enough time to react now.

Having just lost its depth perception in a rather painful way, the mushroom stumbled forwards towards the edge of that region of the caves, the rim of its head bumping into the gradually lowering roof of rock - with Leila still clinging onto it.

She lost her grip as she felt the compressing pain on her ribcage. The tissue that composed the top of the mushroom was mainly soft, yet being sandwiched between that and the walls of the cave didn’t nearly felt like it hurt less. She tumbled down along the side of a sloped wall, not being able to grab onto anything to stop her fall until she came to a stop at the ground.

Can’t move. Leila panicked as the pain in her chest prevented attempts of getting back onto her feet. She remained collapsed there in a half-sitting position - she was quite surprised she was still conscious, but there wasn’t much she could do either. She tried to cough, but even that didn't feel acceptable. At the edge of her eyesight, she saw the light from her trinket slowly fading to it’s previous intensity - even less, as the liquid inside drained down to less than half the entire volume.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Fox of Spades said
Four, I'll be tossing questions at Leila tonight >:) get ready.IT'S PHILOSOPHICAL PANCAKE TIME!!!

Fox what

no

(But yeah questions are welcome yeh)
(oh dear this is happening sooner than I expected)

EDIT: Also posted IC. This must be the shortest time interval in which I make two consecutive posts.

Anyway, first step of plan carried out. Let's just hope the mushroom's disoriented and angry enough now to not to focus on killing anyone and for the rest of the humans to go through with the thing.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Posted! It's good to be back.

Leila's current status is approximately this.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Marco Polo (September 15, 1254 – January 8–9, 1324), Italian merchant traveller from Venice. Author of Livres des merveilles du monde, first known European to give a detailed chronicle of travels in Asia.

* * * *

Leila rested her head against the rough surface at the foot of one of the walls of the caves, body decided that it didn’t have enough energy to do anything - or move at all - at least until it’s done taking in all the pain from the tumbling crash after being swept into the air by the wind and then the scramble to the caves that consisted of multiple sequences of rolling across the ground in various ways and almost being crushed by a cascade of boulders. Her current attire covered most of her skin, sparing her from much of the scratch and cuts that would have occurred otherwise (and in fact did occur in a similar situation that previously arose). The sensation the felt like every joint in her body was detached and then popped back in at uncomfortable angles, however, wasn’t alleviated.

How strong a gust of wind did it have to be to propel them this far? Ugh, Nowherian aerodynamics. The girl was a bit too disoriented to tell, anyway.

Some other humans were in the caves as well. She wasn’t as good telling voices from one another. Ace. The blacked-haired writer boy with glasses. Harper - the kid who first greeted her way back at Nowhere station. Back when...how far back? It seemed to be the question she hit every time she tries to trace back. And from some point on, the question settled on returning a single, consistent answer:

“I don’t know.”

It bothered her greatly. Yet, Leila wasn’t given time to run through that routine this time, for a voice interrupted her. It was the messenger, who accompanied them in their journey in the area.

"I suggest you all close your eyes!" She yelled.

By the way you know Leila, it would probably not be hard to guess that when someone says that, there would be no way that Leila was going to close her eyes.

The burst of light followed, resulting in temporary blindness, discomfort, and profound confusion.

And the sudden regret of not having closed her eyes.

* * * *

Piezoluminescence.

Their advance forward - forward, because it was hard to tell whether they were on their way to leave the caves, of heading deeper into them - continued. Nowhere continued to fascinate Leila with its inexhaustible supply of absurd and unexpected materials and phenomena. The diversity in environments and organisms was also astounding - she thought as she paused to stare at the fish-shaped silhouettes that swam elegantly in the depths of the dimly fluorescent underwater lake. So much that she had never seen - so much that she would need to read up on. Or was there any documentation of this back at home? She was surely not the first human to visit such a place - right? Or was documentary even worth it when she had seen these scenes with her own eyes and saved them in her own memories? She came dangerously close to allowing her thoughts to wander off again, risking losing track of the actions and whereabouts of the rest of her group - the messenger and the other humans, who were currently attempting to devise a method of scaling a ledge of sorts that she assumed was somewhere near.

Leila also came dangerously close to being impaled on one of the claws of a giant mushroom that appeared out of nowhere.

Claws.

Giant mushroom.
Giant mushroom that appeared out of nowhere - implying that it moved.

That made no sense at all.

Leila got back up to her feet at the site of her fall to evade the swing of the claw on the elongated appendage. A subsequent swing was intercepted by Harper with a swing of his sword, severing the claw.

Which then grew back.

Giant mushroom with claws that grow back at a rate detectable by eyesight.

That made even less sense.

The monster shrieked, the fibre-y tendrils that composed its body writhing angrily as if having emotions of their own.

Her amulet was glowing. Leila reacted, without taking the time to actually acknowledge that she was reacting. It was as if the amulet was controlling her mind - while that most certainly wasn’t the case, it felt much like it - observations, decisions, the carrying out of decisions. No double-checking, no uncertainty, near-instinctive reaction time.

Leap to the side. Properly damp collision with ground. Propell body in opposite direction, move out of visual range of opponent. Reach for arrow in process.

Splashing sounds were heard as Harper was tossed into the lake. The monster let out a shorter hiss, then - as if suddenly acknowledging the other humans as threats as well - turned around to face the other three humans. It hesitated for one moment and suddenly began to accelerate - towards them, at an alarming rate.

Draw. Anchor.

A suitable estimate of the mass of a humongous mushroom. Evaluate speed as a function of time. Curvature of trajectory negligible at short range.

Aim.

Weight of an arrow and its speed. Just barely enough to -

- it would be hard to see an arrow travelling through the air at that velocity and these lighting conditions, but a result was evident as observed through the humming of a still vibrated bowstring, the dull sound of an impact, an unpleasant roar originated from the monstrosity of a mushroom that staggered in its steady, rapid advance.

Conclusion: Giant mushroom with claws that is now utterly pissed off due to an arrow sticking through its face.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

*rolls in*
A reminder that my exams will be over tomorrow and if things turn out okay I'll come up a post in a couple of days
*continues rolling*
Leila shall be there when the moveon post happens
*rolls out*

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

I'M SO READY FOR THIS.

Exams are hopefully over by the time the two cycles end and I look forward to getting Leila back into the game, although I do have a lot to catch up with.

also @Phones: spectacular answers! Thanks for taking the time to write all that.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Dropping post solely for the reason of dropping questions for Haku.

1. You seem to keep a notebook with you at all times. What does your handwriting look like?
2. Do you find your life so far to be satisfactory?
3. Think of one memory that will make you immediately regret recalling it and attempt to describe it.
4. Do you read much? What kind of material? Favourite book?
5. What is fear?
6. Do you like questions? What do you do when you don't have answers?
7. Have you any people you look up to/consider role models or the like?
8. Describe the sun.
9. What is intelligence?
10. What is death?
11. Do you like mirrors?
12. Optional shout out to fellow Lost Souls, Guides and other Nowherians. Go.

Had some more in mind, but answering questions is much more work than asking them and I take that into consideration.

6 AM...Yesterday

Dropped second sheet through PM, notifying here because the Guild doesn't.

Well, /most/ of the second sheet, that it. Run into a bit of a block and the History is getting forever to get down and I still don't like how it's laid out, but I think it's not a good idea to keep this task lagging for long so...might as well.

Sheet will be added to and completed as soon as possible. Exams next week might prove an obstacle.