#🎀 thread: happy pride!

[machiot]

Coming in with the rush of miasma are two more children, holding hands and skipping. One flicks a knife and the other jingles their bells to an unfamiliar tune. The child with the knife leans over to whisper something in the other child's ear and both giggle soundlessly.

"Hey, what" —Marni hacks a cough at the foul air— "w-what's so funny? We're gonna kill you punks!"

That being said, they're all starting to look a little rough and it's a little hard to kill the enemy if you're already on the ground. Maybe the healing staff she brought will actually get some use, after all.

To be honest, though, she's never actually used a healing staff and gotten it to actually do anything more than fizzle out uselessly. How were they supposed to work again? Waving it around? Wouldn't it be more effective if she hit Andrei with it directly?

Well, might as well give it a shot!

Marni winds up with the stave as if it were an axe and as magic begins to crackle, she bonks Andrei with it.

Marni 5/10HP heals Andrei 4.5/10HP with Physic. [Roll: 5; 1 + 2 = +3] Andrei 7.5/10HP Marni 5/10HP is inflicted with -4 dex for the rest of the turn! 

...Or at least, she would have bonked him with it if the suffocating air in the bunker wasn't starting to make her a little light headed.

What she actually ends up doing is barely grazing Andrei with the staff. It's sloppy and barely better than anything she'd accomplished in reality, but a heal's a heal, right? Beggers can't be choosers when Marni's the only one here with staves.

Making her way over to Andrei also means she can lean down to snatch up the abandoned thurible, swinging around the chain once more. The other girl, Ophelia, as she had loudly announced, looks fine, but the big guy is starting to look a little worse for the wear. That means it's his turn to get thurible-flailed until she figures out how to get her staff to turn back on.

Marni 5/10HP uses Thurible to transfer 2HP to Dheginsea 7/10HP. Marni 3/10HP Dheginsea 9/10HP

The air must be getting to Marni faster than she thought, because she completely misses hitting Dheginsea with the thurible, metal contraption splitting apart near his feet. Spent incense and charcoal spill across the floor in a puff of dust. It's certainly not what she intended, but spreading the incense is a good thing... probably.

"So, how about it? You guys feel better thanks to me, right?" Marni boasts. She's beginning to seriously feel a bit woozy now, but it's not enough to stop her from fishing for compliments. "Leave the healing to me!"

next: @old-scalebag

Happy pride!

{ TOA arena summer 2024 || Team 7 ~ Bronze round }

[machiot]

As much as Marni would love to continue swinging around the thurible like a flail, the unsettling children have begun to make their move. The first of which attacks the blonde chatterbox; a poor choice that leaves teetering them on death's door after she already exploded them once.

The second child comes for Marni, shells in hand. It's not really... a threatening sight, being approached by a child with seashells, regardless of how jankily the child moves. What are they going to do, smack her with them?

“Good Child” B 6/6HP hits Marni 10/10HP with Cockleshells. [Roll: 11; -1] Marni 9/10HP.

The answer is yes, they are. The ridges of the shells are sharper than they look and they scrape at Marni's exposed flesh like a blunted knife. It hurts less than the friction burn from the chain, but it's the principle of being attacked that she takes offense to more than anything.

Flipping open her tome, Marni points at the offending child with her right hand. Magic seemed to work for the other girl despite it never working for herself, so she would just copy whatever she did.

"Go, Legionnaires of... Wind or whatever she said!" Marni commands, sending a gust of wind at the child. "Kill this kid already!"

Marni 9/10HP counterattacks with Wind. [Roll: 18 - 2 = 16; -1] “Good Child” B 5/6HP Omen activates! [Roll: 1]. All players recover 1HP.

As she does, the thuribles still on the ground spew out more incense. Buffeted by wind and the strong smell of incense, the child retreats behind the other children, including the kid who looks to be on death's door.

Well, she's already got the tome out, so might as well attack them, too, right?

Marni 10/10HP hits “Good Child” A 1/6HP with Wind at range. [Roll: 9 - 2 = 7; -1] “Good Child” A 0/6HP Miracle activates! “Good Child” A 0.5/6HP

The unnerving child stills and slumps before jerking back into action, making them look even more like a Corrupted. They return the cockleshells to who knows where and pull their bells back out with a discordant jingle. They shake the bells like a child at their first recital; off tempo enough to make Marni want to throw her hands over her ears.

“Good Child” A 0.5/6HP counterattacks with Silver Bells. [Roll: 13; -2] Marni 8/10HP has been inflicted with -1 def/res for next combat instance!

After she had already momentarily forgotten about the thurible is when she realizes that Dheginsea had been trying to talk to her.

"Marker Girl?! It's Marni! Mar-ni!" She emphasizes, ears still ringing. She does not see the irony in not calling Dheginsea by his actual name either. "You should remember it, Baldy!"

next: @chosenoneofdusk @ulircursed

Happy pride!

{ TOA arena summer 2024 || Team 7 ~ Bronze round }

[machiot]

Marni catches the flail thurible tossed back at her by Andrei, letting the chain sway back and forth in her hand. The fine vapor that seeps out does not irritate the friction burn on her hand like she might expect, but soothes it instead. The cloying herbal scent is much easier to breathe in than the musty smell of the bunker, anyhow.

She switches the thurible chain to another hand, displaying her now healed hand for all (who are looking at her and not the enemies) to see.

"Hey, I think we can use these to heal!" A beat. The smile vanishes from her face as her brow furrows. "Oh man, doesn't that mean the staves I have are all useless now? So I really do just have this stupid book and nothing else! How am I gonna show off like this?"

Even if she were to throw her so called stupid book right now, she would only be able to hit one of those freaky children. Their movements remind her a bit of the Corrupted; human adjacent, but distinctly unnatural.

Andrei seems to have faith that the other blonde girl will be able to do something and certainly, she looks far more comfortable with a tome in her hand than Marni does. That's fine. It's not like she wanted to be good with magic anyway.

"You heard him! Explode 'em just like the big guy did!"

next for real this time: @chosenoneofdusk

Happy pride!

{ TOA arena summer 2024 || Team 7 ~ Bronze round }

[machiot]

Normally being cornered in a dead end would have Marni confidently striding forward into the fray. Dealing with situations like that was kind of her whole thing, y'know? There's no better opportunity to show off than dealing with an entire wave of enemies by yourself.

At least, it would've been if Marni were wearing her usual armor. She isn't, though. Instead, she finds herself clad in the breezy robes of a priest with a tome and staves in place of her beloved axe. Unlike someone else, she's not too keen on enemies having a clear shot at her exposed flesh. And where's the glory in hiding behind the others to shoot out piddly little gusts of wind?

Besides, even if she were to rush in now, there's no way she would ever manage to be half as cool as the big guy turning into a dragon (she was right, then, that he's like Lord Sombron even if he looks totally different) and one-shotting one of their pursuers. The scariest looking one, too!

"That was so cool!" Marni gushes, pointing at the gaping hole in the creature's chest like a giddy child. "And I mean really cool! I thought you were no fun, but you're pretty alright, Baldy!"

Here is where Marni would have hefted her axe over her shoulder, but there is no axe to be found. She settles for tapping her tome to her shoulder. It's just not the same.

"If you want us to hold the point, then I'll show y— The heck?"

Marni is interrupted mid-boast by something rolling into her (distinctly unarmored) foot. She lifts it by its chain up to her face until her eyes light up with recognition first at the smell and then at the shape.

Perhaps it had been a different kind of church than the kind that other people were accustomed to, but Marni had grown up in a church, nevertheless. She knows what those incense thingies are; she's even swung them around a few times when the priest wasn't looking. They tend to be made of metal, so they make for pretty decent flails in a pinch.

As much as she would like to keep it for herself, something had caught her eye when they had run over here.

Speaking of flails, Marni tosses the thurible that had been by her foot at Andrei like a flail, sucking in a quick breath as the chain catches on the skin of her hand.

Marni 10/10HP uses Thurible to transfer 2HP to Andrei 10/10HP. Marni 8/10HP

"Andrei," she puts her hands on her hips proudly as if she had done her classmate a great service. "Swing that around instead of your little fan. Feel free to thank your pal Marni for getting you a better weapon!"

next: @ulircursed

Happy pride!

{ TOA arena summer 2024 || Team 7 ~ Bronze round }