One, two, ac's gonna get you

[bloodpainter]

Who: Nepeta Leijon and OPEN
What: A bored cattroll is a dangerous and mischievous thing.
Where: The demon-patrolled forest near Silverglen Retreat.
When: July 18th
Warnings: Death of demons, creepy messages written in their blood, Nepeta trolling everyone.



Nepeta was bored. Bored, bored, bored, and worse, she was feeling useless.

Her hunting skills had kept her fellow redsworn fed and granted her some minor recognition among the elves of Silverglen, sure. That was great. But stags and bear just weren't enough for her, she needed some stronger prey. And preferably, she needed to meet more people she could actually talk to. She knew it was a serious situation they were in, but the redsworn all seemed so... tense.

So she'd slipped out, wandered down to past the village and moved through the forest until she found what she was looking for.

Demons.

The patrols weren't all that big out this far into the woods, but three or four felguards, or a felguard escorted by a group of imps, was still something to worry about.

Nepeta, however, was more than up for the challenge.

One by one, the patrols began to vanish. Either Nepeta would strike a blow to the lead felguard's head and take out the weaker demons, then finish it off when it came to, or she'd just appear out of nowhere and slice at them all at the same time, giving her openings to finish them all off quickly. She'd begun to really get a handle on her rogue abilities, and it showed.

After a few of these fights, she was actually feeling tired and had gotten a few injuries from the demons, though nothing that wouldn't heal quickly. Deciding to shift from physical to psychological warfare, she dragged the demon bodies into a pile and began to paint with their blood on a large rock, as she had on her walls back in her cave.

When she was done, a picture of a huge cat with two mouths and wicked claws, jaws and paws dripping blood, covered the top of the rock. Beneath it was a message:

"arseniccatnip is watching you. :33""

Comments

[trampledintheprocess]

A blue raptor was sniffing around the area, followed a bit behind by a person in armor with a gun.

And then Washington saw the words in blood. "What the hell?"

[bloodpainter]

Ooooh, a new person! Just what Nepeta was hoping for. She slipped out of the trees, but kept to the shadows and kept her stealth ability up. As far as she'd ever been able to tell she should basically be invisible like this.

Slowly, carefully, she snuck her way up behind the hapless hunter, until she was mere steps away. She leaned in, grinning wide enough to show all her fangs...

And said "Boo!"

Then quickly readied herself to dodge.

[trampledintheprocess]

Wash let out a yelp of surprise at that.(Well, yelp is being nice in the description. It may have been more like a screech) Oh, if anyone from home had seen that, they'd be laughing at him. He's aiming his gun, but he isn't firing, at least. "Who are you?"

The raptor lets out a scream of rage, chargeing at the person that scared his person.

[bloodpainter]

Nepeta would weave around the gun's sight to make aiming at her hard, but with the angry dinosaur charging her she decides it's better to all-out leap out of the way and put some distance between them. She answers him as she's dodging, though.

"I'm the artist! You like my work?"

[trampledintheprocess]

Washington hesitates at that, lowering his gun a little... The raptor isn't holding back, trying to pursue and take a swipe at her. Until...

"Raptor, know it off and back down. No attacking people. Seriously." He eyes the picture. "It's interesting work... Though I question the use of demon blood for drawing with."

[bloodpainter]

She takes a glance at the raptor just to be certain it's going to listen to its master, then relaxes when it backs off as ordered.

"That was deliberate. I thought it might furrighten them. Or make them mad, either way I win, really. Besides, I usually paint with the blood of my hunts. It's just harder to do that when almost efurrything has red blood around here."

Nepeta makes a face at that, as if downright offended by the lack of creative hues for her to use from her prey.

[trampledintheprocess]

The raptor is tilting its had at her now, just watching warily. But it is listening. And Wash tosses it a tidbit of meat.

Washington chuckles at that. "I really don't think those things are going to be scared off or annoyed by a little blood like that." He pauses though. "The animals where you're from have other colors of blood?"

[bloodpainter]

"Well it's worth a try! I was getting tired of just hunting them so I thought I'd get creative."

Mostly she just really wanted to paint and hasn't had the chance since she arrived.

"But yeah, the animals on Alternia have blood in all the colors of the rainbow. Some are harder to get than others though. Purrple especially."

[trampledintheprocess]

"I guess that's as good a reason as any. And it's a nice cat picture."

Washington admittedly is kind of intrigued bye that thought. Though painting in blood is still kind of creepy... The idea of animals with that many different blood colors is bizarre. "Most lifeforms I'm used to have red blood."

[bloodpainter]

"Oh thanks! Purrbeasts are my favorite." As might be evident by the way she talks and even her body language if one looks closely. Even now one of her hands is held in the posture of a cat ready to swipe if necessary.

She shrugs at that observation pretty acceptingly. "It might just be Alternia."

[telaari]

It's bad enough when the elf runs off without a word. Letting a youngster like Nepeta go out on her own would be a moral failure as a Vindicator! Sure, the girl assured her that she knows how to hunt, but hunting an animal and hunting demons are two very different prospects. A beast was deadly enough, but at the least it was incapable of tearing the soul from one's body and storing it in a prism of pure suffering.

She follows a trail of crushed grasses and bushes, stalks and branches bent in the same direction as though something was dragged over them. Something much too large and heavy to be Nepeta, now that she thinks about it, but with no less disturbing implications.

The trail ends at a boulder, and Vas feels the blood in her veins go cold when she sees the picture painted on it. Every hair on her body stands on end, and she lets out a strangled cry. Her feet feel like slabs of stone as she tries to turn around and get away from the profane thing. She stumbles away from the rock, shaking, finally tripping on a root and landing hard on her knees.

"Man'ari!"

[bloodpainter]

Stealthed into invisibility out in the woods, Nepeta is downright gleeful when she finds Vastania has come out here following her. Or just to find and kill some demons of her own, though that seems unlikely. That'd be more Mar's thing.

Following her at a discreet distance, she little troll watches eagerly to see Vas's reaction to her art. The result is a lot stronger than she thought she'd get, but she's not familiar with the word she shouts.

"Man-what?" She asks, curiosity driving her to step out of the shadows at Vastania's side.

[telaari]

One hand is clamped over her mouth, her breath loud and ragged through her fingers as she tries to stop herself from gagging. The other, Vas uses to prop herself up. The world spins and her vision swims, and time seems to drag. She sees and hears the little Troll girl approach her, but the meaning of her question doesn't quite sink in, not at first.

"Disgusting," she says, after what feels like an age. She pauses again, to choke down the taste of bile before elaborating.

"It means disgusting."

[bloodpainter]

"Oh. Um... are you okay?"

Cautiously, she reaches out a hand (by now washed of demon blood thankfully) and gently starts rubbing Vastania's back to hopefully help her feel better. Part of her wants to ask what's so disgusting.

But she has a feeling she knows, and she doesn't want to push it.

[stormcalling]

Valamia never had a problem frequently the forests. It was easier to grow in touch with the elements and she had very few problems escaping any trouble. When she wonders over to the Nepata's painting, she's disgusted but not as surprised as one would expect. Her brows furrow together and she frowns slightly but doesn't express much beyond that. It isn't the first time she's seen a pile of bodies nor seen such desecration. She shakes her head and exhales slowly. For someone who had more experience with the Legion than she'd care to admit, the smell is terrible.

She takes a step closer to the scene and mutters a few lines in Eredun. She goes closer to the painting as water forms around her hand. The water leaves her hand and starts working to remove the painting. Remove the paint first, deal with any possible corruption left over from all the dead demons after.

[bloodpainter]

Nepeta would tilt her head in confusion at the use of the word desecration. It's a rock, what is there to desecrate? Of course, she's never been told about the more unfortunate properties of demon blood. She might understand more if she had been.

Watching in the shadows as Valamia begins to wash the rock off, she's torn between affront at the removal of her artwork and awe at what she's doing. She's never seen water control before, not even from a seadweller.

Eventually, she slips out of stealth and slowly approaches, curiosity burning in her eyes. "How are you doing that?"

[stormcalling]

She snaps into reality and turns to the troll, almost breaking her concentration. She gives her a little smile, one that's practiced and formal. She goes back to cleaning the blood from the boulder. "By working together with the Elements." She tilts her head at what's left of the painting. All things considered it still isn't the strangest or most disgusting sight she's run across. Not having it around though would make her feel a tad better.

"It's part of being a shaman. You communicate and work together with them. You listen to them and as long as you don't misuse them, they'll listen to you. It's like a partnership." If she's rambling she could apologize but it keeps her from questioning her if it was her work. Part of her would rather hope it wasn't.

[bloodpainter]

That's a bit difficult for her to comprehend, but she sits down and thinks it over, trying to grasp it. Working together with the elements does explain how she can do that, but how she's able to talk to them is the really strange part. Then again, she's known people who can commune with animals and hear the dead. It's not that out there.

"I've lived out in the elements all my life but I've nefur heard them speak." She muses. "I mean the usual message I get out of them is 'get back your cave or you'll die out here.'"

She giggles a bit, somewhat morbidly amused by pretending to be the rain threatening her own life. "Is it something only Draenei can do?"

[stormcalling]

Valamia almost comments about how it isn't that uncommon when thought about in a grand scale. If she wasn't a shaman herself, she probably would still doubt that one can actually hear and talk to them. Communicating with them was an interesting lesson. It does worry her to an extent how Nepata handles herself. The comment was strange and she wasn't sure what to say to it. Instead she waits to respond to her question until she finishes removing the blood. Once she's finished with that, the water simply collapses to the ground to go to the earth.

"No. Shamanism is spread between various races. I have seen trolls who are shamans." A beat when she seems to recall that she is speaking a troll. A different kind then she's used to be still one. "The ones on Azeroth, that is. They tend to be barely more civil then some of their kinsmen."

[bloodpainter]

"It's going to be really weird getting used to a whole other species calling themselves trolls." Nepeta muses, scratching her head a bit. "I mean, Mar told me about them, but I'm still not really used to the idea."

She rather wants to see an Azerothian troll at this point, just so she knows what people around here are usually talking about when they mention them.

"But anyway, about shamanism. So does that mean anyone can do it?" She's not sure why she's asking this. She herself is probably not a very good candidate, and she's quite happy with her rogue abilities. But curiosity can be a strong thing, and it's a better topic than the drawing and Val's reaction to it.

[stormcalling]

"Be grateful we haven't ran into any yet. They're far less civil then most races." She would comment about how she's fairly sure they'd try and eat them alive but that was a unpleasant idea. She doesn't think they even have Darkspear around. A strange idea that a smaller troll tribe is less likely to eat them then others.

Valamia shrugs at the question and mulls it over. "I don't think anyone can do it, no." She takes a moment to try and figure a way to best explain how one becomes a shaman. Given that she doesn't fully understand it herself it makes it a lot harder. "To be honest, I don't fully understand how one becomes a shaman. One day you're a normal person and the next day things just feel different." Or something vague like that.

[bloodpainter]

"Well, so are Alternian Trolls, mostly. Honestly if you meet one of them besides me you purrbably should be careful. Even my furriends can be really dangerous."

In fact, given the array of powers her little group possesses, a lot of them might be the more dangerous members of their species.

The explanation isn't exactly helpful, but Nepeta's willing to accept it. "Like Psionics in some trolls... those are special abilities you can use with your mind. A few of my furriends are really good at them." Sollux's eye beams, Aradia's telekinesis, Vriska's mind control... well that only works properly on other trolls but it still makes Nepeta wonder why her of all trolls was recruited into the war. Some of the others would be way more useful, even if they lacked her raw strength and agility.

[stormcalling]

"Isn't that safe to say about any race though? It seems like any race is filled with dangerous people."

That comes from the experience of encountering various races. Maybe not the Alternian trolls beyond Nepata but it was a safe guess. Every race had their good people and their bad, even the races she hated and wanted nothing to do with.

Valamia almost asks what sort of abilities that would call for. She knew of some priests being able to do things to others with their minds. She also hears those who use fel magic can do so but that was far less surprising. "Perhaps. If we had someone more experienced from the Earthen Ring they could give you a proper explanation on how shamanism works. It is an interesting talent, if you can call it that. It is how I heard of this...painting." The earth didn't need more corruption. She wouldn't have minded if someone else had heard the earth and taken up the job instead. "Then again it seems many people are excited to kill a few demons without thinking of the larger picture."

SUPER LATE SORRY

[bloodyunique]

Karkat had been wandering by, coincidentally.

It was hard as hell trying to get used to shit like this. He was in a world filled with dragons, and eggs and other shit that would probably be in one of his really stupid fantasy/romance movies that he didn't like so much. It wasn't his ideal place to be; he kind of liked the idea of being in the Veil better...with all of his friends alive, of course. This shit was weird and it didn't quite cut it the way he wanted it to.

He saw a familiar figure nearby...painting something on a rock. Karkat walked up to her, raising an eyebrow at what the message had to say. Of course.

"Does anybody here even know what the fuck FLARP is?"

I was worried you'd forgotten!

[bloodpainter]

"Well no, but it makes a good code-"

Wait. That voice was familiar. Nepeta raises her head and twisted it around, finishing her sentence absently as she stared at him.

"Name... Karkat?"

Her jaw fell open. She had not expected to see him. After a brief moment she grinned in glee and leaped to her feet.

"Karkat! When did you get here?"