ic All Aboard the Nightmare Ship! (IC)

[Shofet]

GM

 

For Dirge, the apparition was different. Instead of a three-eyed woman, it was a tall, blue Fryxian woman. Patches of fur had been torn out, and she seemed to have been burned by blaster fire. At the start, her screams were that of the other apparition, before they stopped, and she turned to Dirge, flat faced.

 

"Kanemu, why did you leave me?"

 

Just as quickly as she appeared, the woman vanished as soon as the lights ceased to flicker, leaving no sign she was ever there.

 

Ea'Po took her chance to speak up, though her words were not comforting. "Oh, no. This ship, hmn. It might be haunted."

[Dr Archeville]

Doktor Archeville

 

The Doktor had been focused on Dirge, and was caught quite unaware by the haunt.  He jumped back at the apparition's appearance, reflexively activating his force field and antigravity systems, rising up several inches into the air.  A few moments after it vanished -- making sure nothing else was going to appear -- the blue glow of his protective field faded away, and he lowered himself back to the floor, muttering to himself in German.

 

Stupid *****ing ghost can't go anywhere without running into ******* supernatural ********

 

He looked to Dirge, then Starlok, then to Dr. Ea'Po.  "So.  Atchpan ghosts, eh?  I don't suppose you know any exorcism rituals?"

 

[Amelia]

Dirge

 

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"Though, to be on the safe side, I should run a quick biochemical analysis of you, to make sure I don't cause any more harm!"

 

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Starlok placed her hand on his arm. "Are you alright?" Her voice came out softer than she intended. Her face screwed up, and she righted herself. "You better be alright, Dirge. We cannot afford you to get ill right before we make our way into the belly of the ship."

 

The Fryxian waved them away. "BAH, don't waste your time, Terran. I have drunk entire LEGIONS of Lor under the table! My..." He became distracted by his own hand motions, since, to his eye, they were leaving a trail of after-images in the air in front of him. He remembered his companions a few moments later. "In fact, I have never felt BETTER!" Technically, this was true. The euphoria racing through Dirge's body made him feel like he could take on the Star-Khan's entire armada and win. "Any demons lying in wait for us shall find only THEIR OWN DOOM this day!"

 

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Suddenly the lights flickered inside the Stigmata, before flickering inside Archeville's ship as well. A woman's bloodcurdling howl of anguish emanated throughout the bowels of the great vessel. A tall, blue Fryxian woman appeared. Patches of fur had been torn out, and she seemed to have been burned by blaster fire. Her screams stopped, and she turned to Dirge, flat faced.

 

"Kanemu, why did you leave me?"

Just as quickly as she appeared, the woman vanished, and the flickering stopped.

 

"NO!" Dirge lunged toward the woman, seeking to wrap her in his arms and turn her away from her attackers, presenting himself as a target instead, but she vanished before he could get a grip. He stumbled to his knees in the spot where she had stood. Then he screamed in frustration, and every loose metal object in the room flew in a random direction.

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Grumblefloof

[Shofet]

Starlok

 

Starlok was ready to get back to business, when Dirge went wild. She only had a moment to realize what was about to happen when she saw storm of metal objects fly up into the air. She had no time to try and remove her metal girdle, sword or helmet, though she did make the attempt before she was flung violently into the wall, the Blade of the Blood Drinkers swinging into the opposite direction and impaling itself on the opposite side. Starlok felt her neck twist violently, and she heard pops as her spine tried to go in the opposite direction.

 

Her legs spasmed, as her arms struggled to pull her helmet off of her, feeling it try and rip her head free from the rest of her spine. Only barely did she manage to pull it away from her, throwing it and watching it cascade away as blue blood spilled from her lips and onto her chin. She was almost ready to try and get things under control when she felt several pieces of what appeared to be archaelogical tools, little scrapers and pokers, embed themselves in her thigh. She hollered, and barked a threat that was interrupted by an AEDD striking her in the cheek.

 

“Dirge!” she cried, grinding her teeth as she gripped onto the wall tightly, attempting to use her girdle’s flight capabilities to not be flung any further. “You must cease! You will the death of all us! KANEMU, STOP!”

 

Dr. Ea’Po laid there in a huddle on the floor, having pulled the power cell from a blaster she kept on her person which now bounced around the interior of the ship. She clutched her head, trying to make herself as small as possible to avoid injury as best she could. Mercifully for her, nothing big was headed her way, but one could hear the warbling and static failure of the AEDD’s internals as the magnetism wiped hard-drives and pulled pieces of important chips free from their motherboards.

[Dr Archeville]

Doktor Archeville

 

Unfortunately for Archeville, his new technorganic body contained far more metal than a standard human's.  Fortunately for him, his body could mimic the functions of his electromagnetic screwdriver, which included setting up a resonating magnetic field to counter Dirge's panicked outburst from affecting him directly.  (Anyone paying attention would notice that Archeville's belt and wand, which were obviously metal, were not affected by Dirge's power.)

 

Now he just had the storm of metal to contend with.  Like the beetle-bot that was hurtling towards his head, which his internal radar gave him just enough warning to avoid.  He rose up into the air again and made is way towards Dirge, bobbing and weaving to avoid any obstacles.  "Yes, Kanemu," he called out, keeping his voice as even and soothing as he could, "you must calm yourself, friend.  Whatever you saw was an apparition, it cannot harm you.  You are safe here."

 

I hope.

 

 

 

[Amelia]

Dirge

 

After a few moments, the Fryxian looked up at his companions, as if the sound of their voices had been delayed and was only then reaching his ears. The metal storm ceased. Loose objects fell and clattered across the floor. He slowly rose to his feet, his gaze floating from one side of the room to the other and back again, surveying the destruction and disorder. He turned to Archeville and cleared his throat. "For the moment, I lack the funds to compensate you for...this. But if my payment at the end of this venture is insufficient, then I will provide whatever labor you deem fair in recompense." His eyes widened when he glanced down and saw the wounds in Starlok's leg. He knelt down and retrieved a random utensil from the floor. "You have been injured by my hand, without just cause. Honor demands the same of me." He jammed the utensil into his own thigh meat, strangling his own scream with tightly-clenched teeth.

 

[Shofet]

Starlok

 

Starlok looked on as the metal around her cascaded to the floor, using her own flight capabilities to ensure she reached the ground slowly and painlessly. Aside from all the pain she was already in, of course. She tried to make a moment to breathe, but Dirge was ready to continue the excitement, all on his own.

 

"What are you doing?!" Ori-Bath howled, immediately going to try and pull it out of Dirge. "I didn't ask you to do that! You will not harm yourself like that in my presence again, like some half-mad flagellant! I won't allow it! I refuse to watch my fr-ally do something so... Awful!" 

 

She was livid now. Something about seeing someone like Dirge harm himself like that deeply unsettled her, too. But then again, what was this mission of his but some elaborate, extended form of self-harm? The terrible truth that struck her was that this was a natural extension of Dirge's whole worldview. And she was enabling -- No! No, this was going to happen anyway. She would steer him on the right path in time.

 

For her part, Dr. Ea'Po rose from the ground, frowning. "Maybe we shouldn't be yelling at each other..."

[Dr Archeville]

Doktor Archeville

 

"Oh, don't worry," he began in response to Dirge's offer to repay him for damages, waving a hand in an amicably dismissive way, "there's not need to WHOAH?!"

 

He flew to Dirge's side and examined the self-inflicted wound.  "Honor is all well and good, my friend, but 'an eye for an eye' leaves everyone blind."  He knew that's not what the saying meant, at least not originally, that it was a decree to make a punishment be commensurate with the severity of the crime.  No sending one of theirs to the morgue if they send one of yours to the hospital.  But that was a discussion for another time.  "Presuming that your anatomy is analogous to Terrans, you could have severed your femoral artery with this stunt.  And then where would you be?"  He pulled out the tool then let it go, and it was caught by one of his beetle-bots which had scuttled up to him.  It passed him some sterile gauze, which he used to wipe away the softly glowing blue blood from Dirge's wound.  "You'd be bleeding out on my nice clean floor, that's what.  And then you'd really owe me."

 

He continued his work, and found that while the injury was deep, it had not nicked any major blood vessels.  It would require a few stitches, and would leave a scar, though one small enough that his fur could cover it.  When he was done (with whatever treatment Dirge permitted him to perform), he then saw to Starlok's injuries.  Those seemed much less severe, with barely any blood.