Town Hall, Saturday, December 19, 2020 [Morning into Afternoon]

[fh_extras]

Fandom, at this point, was a bit of a disaster. The chocolate lava, flowing since Wednesday, had spilled out of its rivers and frozen to the already icy cobblestones. The sugar icicles had gotten longer and more dangerous to unwary pedestrians, the marzipan boulders were deadly when they picked up speed coming down the stairs, and the choking fairy lights had teamed up with the sharkicanes to drag people into snowdrifts--now up to shoulder height--forever.

The inflatables that hadn't been knifed, shot, or blasted to pieces yesterday were out roaming again, fruitcakes were still lying in wait to crush toes and bark shins, and the less said about the terrifying new reindeer and their mesmerizing red noses, the better.

The island needed a few heroes right now to buy time for the science team holed up inside Town Hall. Fortunately, it had a lot to choose from.

Comments

Re: Big Finish!

[betterthanaplan]

"Doesn't look like it," Duke called back. He pulled the stick of dynamite he'd gotten off the weird kid last summer from his back pocket. "We might want to change plans!"

Re: Big Finish!

[magnusrushesin]

"Rock, paper, scissors for who gets to use it!" Magnus called out immediately. Because, c'mon. Blowing up a giant bear?

Re: Big Finish!

[notallbluemonks]

"I can stun this fucker," Beau yelled, "just for a few seconds, but if that buys you some time, man, I'm into it."

Re: Big Finish!

[superjoanjett]

Jessica looked around at the people saying things like dynamite, rock, paper, scissors and stunning.

"You people are all fucking nuts," she called out.

And hurled another marzipan boulder at the bear.

Re: Big Finish!

[betterthanaplan]

"You get used to it," Duke told her, digging a lighter out of his other pocket. "Right, who wants to get this fucker onto that fucker?"

Re: Big Finish!

[weirderthanthou]

"I can toss it over there if you need me to," Jesse called, as her feet touched back down on the ground.

Re: Big Finish!

[notarockharpist]

Yasha had nothing to contribute to this conversation, mostly because she was still deeply entrenched in her rage and too busy hacking at the bear and snarling right back at it.

Maybe it was because she was just frustrated that the bear was too big for her to actually get up into its face, or maybe just fighting a fucking massive bear was putting an extra sharp edge on her aggression, but... the light around her seemed to dim for a moment as her eyes and the white ends of her hair went solid black, and a pair of giant tattered and skeletal wings unfolded from her back, apparently out of nowhere.

That faint aura of darkness around her seemed to concentrate itself on the bear, doing a small but steady amount of necrotic damage to it as long as she stayed right up in its space, trying to keep its attention focused on her instead of the others as much as possible.

... it was also kind of terrifying, if you happened to be nearby.

Re: Big Finish!

[magnusrushesin]

Terrifying? Or awesome?

"...man, I super should have multi-classed with some magic," Magnus said.

Re: Big Finish!

[imafuturist]

"Whatever the plan is, might wanna get it done now," Tony said, just ignoring the commentary there. For his own sanity.

Re: Big Finish!

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was . . . still holding the unlit dynamite. Because he was busy staring very wide-eyed at the fucking death metal cover art fighting the polar bear over here.

"Um," he said finally. "Maybe she could do it?"

What with the spooky wings and all.

Re: Big Finish!

[notallbluemonks]

There was a long and particularly nasty sugar icicle screaming toward her head, and Beau reached out on instinct to grab it just before impact, then whirled like a discus thrower and flung it hard enough to embed itself several inches into the bear's left hind leg.

"So am I stunning the fucker or what?"

Re: Big Finish!

[superjoanjett]

"Well slinging fucking marzipan isn't doing anything," Jessica said, pushing hair out of her face. "If you can do it, stun the fucker."

Re: Big Finish!

[weirderthanthou]

"Stun the fucker!" Jesse agreed loudly, "Then light the dynamite, I'll take it from there!"

Re: Big Finish!

[notallbluemonks]

"Okay, here -- fuck! Here goes," Beau replied, interrupted briefly by having to dodge a marzipan boulder. She'd landed enough hits on the bear by now to have a pretty good read on the flow of its life force; it was just a matter of getting herself into a good position to actually strike at a vulnerable spot.

"Yash, we're doing that thing!" she yelled; she circled around the bear (no taking attacks of opportunity from that thing, thanks) toward Yasha and basically parkoured off her shoulder like they'd done this before.

It wasn't perfect. She'd have much preferred to get up onto its shoulders or something less precarious, but the damn bear was way too big and they didn't have that kind of time. Still, between the boost from Yasha and her own dexterity, she managed to scramble up one of the bear's hind legs just far enough to jam her fist into a soft spot on the back of its knee and basically create a temporary break in its energy flow that would stun it.

"Oh hey, it worked," she mumbled just before gravity got the best of her and she started falling. "I'm good, just focus on this guy!"

Monks, man.

Re: Big Finish!

[betterthanaplan]

Duke madly flicked his lighter and got the dynamite lit, then thrust it at Jesse. "Take it take it take it take it take it!"

He didn't like carrying lit explosives, okay?

Re: Big Finish!

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse didn't take it with her hand. She wasn't nuts.

She ripped it out of Duke's hand with her power instead, lifting the burning thing up into the air a few feet away from herself. "Here goes!" she bellowed.

And hurled it at the bear's gaping maw.

Re: Big Finish!

[superjoanjett]

“I don’t know about the rest of you but this is the craziest Saturday night I’ve had in a long time,” Jessica noted as she watched this stuff go down.”

Re: Big Finish!

[betterthanaplan]

"Eh," Duke said with a shrug. "Define 'a long time'."

What? Between Fandom and Haven, he'd had a lot of crazy Saturdays.

Re: Big Finish!

[notallbluemonks]

"Yeah, I mean --" Beau picked herself up off the ground and waved a hand dismissively. "This is honestly kind of, like, an average day in the life for me and Yasha sometimes."