[open] 🐺 cause you're a sky, 'cause you're a sky full of stars

[activatingcombatmode]

Who: Zack Fair & You
Status: Open!
Where: The Seventh Heaven, Eltrut, wherever these threads happen.
What: And open log for Zack for the month of January! A closed prompt for crewmates and some quests.
Warnings: i've seen enough to know where tentacles go



[🐺 a: snowfall: closed to crewmates]

[The constant snowfall is no joke. For a world that’s mostly (arguably) tropical, the recent snow and ice storms feel wildly out of place, and relentless. By morning, the Seventh Heaven lies buried beneath a fresh white sheet, and the ship itself can’t leave port until at least some of it has been shovelled clear.

That’s where Zack is now! Bundled up in some light winter gear, shovel in hand, sending snow sliding over the edge of the ship’s deck. When he spots you, he breaks into a wide grin and saunters over, pressing a spare shovel into your hands like it’s an invitation rather than a chore.]

Come on, up and at em. This snow won’t shovel itself. Let’s get this snow off the deck so we can ship out later.

[🐺 b: fleamaster mooshka]

[Zack is more than used to random quests being… well, random. Catching fleas isn’t anything new. Even if herding tiny bugs is a first for him. In theory, it should be pretty easy to find and capture bugs… But ones that are this tiny?]

Actually? Serious question. How exactly are we supposed to go around catching bugs smaller than a ladybug?

[Eltrut is also a massive place to search. Who knows how far these fleas have escaped to, and who knows how long it’s going to take to find them. Zack starts at the Eltrut docks and he plans to comb his way up through town and probably into the outskirts and woods too. It’s a hefty task but Zack wants to do it right.]

Alright, let’s do this.

[🐺 c: no rift out there]

[Out of nowhere, one of those peculiar shinning rifts appears. At first, Zack thinks it might be one of the usual rifts that’s about to spit out a new Riftfarer from another world. Over the years, Zack’s become used to the task of helping out the newbies, no matter how far they come from. A rift is a rift. And just another day in Escordvi.

It’s for exactly this reason that Zack barely thinks twice about the rift. He steps closer, already reaching out to help whoever might come sprawling through it. Only for a long, black tentacle to snap out without warning, coiling around his neck so fast he barely has time to react.]

Tch!?

[Zack struggles instantly, yanking at the tentacle with all his strength, trying to force it to loosen its grip. It’s much stronger than it looks. He ends up grappling with it instead, fingers slipping as he fights to gasp in a breath.

The slimy limb around his neck tightens, crushing, and the slick tip of another tentacle writhes upward, trying to force its way past his lips. His chest burns. The air won’t come. Breathing gets harder and harder and panic claws in as his vision starts to blur...!!

This is so gross!!]

[🐺 e: wildcard]

[got something else? feel free to wild card me here too. Or find me at michrure for some plotting.]

Comments

closed to tifa lockhart 🌹

[activatingcombatmode]

[The island they are exploring is icy and mountainous, and the quest itself is straightforward. Explore the land and chart whatever they can. Zack and Tifa have worked together plenty of times before. By now, cooperation comes naturally, even on something as routine as basic island exploration.

Still, as they land on the shore, Zack senses something unusual in the air. He cannot quite put a name to it, but it feels ... too peaceful? Quiet and serene in a way he has not experienced in a long time.]

Seems pretty quiet out here. ... Almost too quiet?

[If that makes any sense.]

[starshower]

[Even if there are others that she knows are exploring the island, she, too, feels something a little bit off about all of this. Namely—]

Where is everyone?

[She expected that there would be more people working near the ships that are anchored here, or at least others that are charting out the territory to help move things along, but... there is not a single soul here.

She glances at Zack, and then towards the trees, and there's trepidation in her step because yes, something feels very odd about this place that she can't quite put her finger on.]

Let's try going around the beach first? See if we can find anyone? We can draw out a path on the way.

[activatingcombatmode]

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan.

[That uneasiness will stay with them even when they start to walk the length of the shore. This strange shroud that feels ... almost uncanny.]

I thought that there would be crews out here in droves, too. Charting a new island is easy work.

[... There's always a catch, though. He's learned that.]

[starshower]

That's what I thought, too. For a MANTA board posting, especially.

[Islands are aplenty, and new and undiscovered ones especially. And everyone needs maps... So surely they aren't the only ones here!?

That is what Tifa thinks, as she takes out her shellphone to start snapping photos when...]

Wait. [She squints at the screen and then zooms in.] Zack, look.

[On her screen, though much harder to see with the naked eye, is a body lying on the beach.]

c

[serendipitously]

[ Perhaps there's something to be said about bad luck...

Because what other explanation could there possibly be for her to constantly be finding Zack when the horrors were all around? Fortunately (or unfortunately, depends on how you look at it) there wasn't much time for Betsy to really think about that. Not with the entire tentacle quickly taking away his ability to breath.

And live.

That's bad too.

She rushes over to it and summons up a weapon, a glowing magenta sword, and slices straight through the tentacle wrapped around him. ]

Why did it have to be bloody tentacles...

[ because slicing one leaves quite the smell. Like burned calamari. Burned metallic calamari. Yum. ]

Are you alright? [ Now that he can potentially breath again. ]

[activatingcombatmode]

[Shame, because Zack likes a good cooked calamari. With some zesty tartar sauce. This? Isn't it.

The smell is barely what holds his attention. Zack gasps as the tentacle is severed from its spot, and he collapses to the ground with a dull thump. He coughs harshly, his lungs scrambling to drag the air back inside.]

Never... [He rasps,] Been better...

[Yet, as the severed tentacle writhes back into the rift, there's a soft orb of light that follows it. The orb of light is gone through the rift before Zack can recognize it happening.]

[serendipitously]

[ She kneels down rather quickly and reaches out to try to steady him some. Though she's not really sure how much help she can be aside from that and hoping for the best. She's sadly no healer. (Much to her chagrin because boy would that be useful in her line of work) ]

You sound fantastic....

[ Although that orb of light concerns her far more than his coughing. ]

That however looked the opposite of fantastic. What did it do. [ A beat ] Besides trying to choke you to death.

a. snowfall

[chaosvessel]

[He's become more of a facet on the ship since he agreed to join the crew with Cloud, not that he's told anyone. If someone had taken a look at the roster, they'd know, but he's not talking.

He doesn't seem too effected by the cold, either, clad as he is in his usual leathers and cape.

He looks down at the shovel thrust in his direction then back to Zack.]

Why would we sail in this?

[activatingcombatmode]

[Vincent, why do you have to make him jump through hoops to be your crew bestie...

That's okay, Vincent is enough of an enigma on the ship that Zack is just going to start assuming that Vincent is part of the crew.]

No rest for the wicked, or whatever. We've still got deliveries to make today.

[chaosvessel]

[He makes everyone jump through hoops...unless you're Arkady, evidently, but we're not talking about that.]

In this weather?

a

[scooba]

[Snow wasn't new to him. Being a cryo user, he had seen ice and snow plenty of times where he could create a foot of it if he wanted to. So when he was given a shovel, he looked down at the deck before nodding.]

...I wonder if I use my cryo vision will it make the snow disappear faster.

[activatingcombatmode]

[Zack looks puzzled. He has seen Lyney's vision-thing before so he assumes it's the same thing.]

Cryo vision? What does it do?

[scooba]

Well, I can freeze things but..

[mumble mumble]

...I can also try to make it easier to get the snow off too.

c!!

[sparkstrikes]

[Hopefully this strike of lightning (literally) will be enough to wake him out of that stupor and knock some consciousness back into him! There's a flash of bright light and the sound and awful smell of something sizzling as the tentacle unravels itself from Zack's neck and withdraws back into the rift where it came from. Lightning stands there in horror, watching it disappear, before rushing over to catch him, grabbing his arm to sling it around her shoulders to support him.]

The hell are these things!?

[Rhetorical because she figures that no one has the damn answer to it right now.]

Can you stand?

[activatingcombatmode]

[Lightning is as fast as lightning (ha ha), catching Zack before he manages to hit the ground like a sack of rocks. He's gasping and coughing roughly for breath. It feels like his lungs just got ripped out of him.

But the fried tentacles whip backwards, some of them returning to the rift they came from, some of them whipping about angrily. Unfortunately, another rift opens up near them and three more tentacles start to slither out...

Zack has to lean on Lightning for the moment as he catches his breath. But he manages to stand with her help. While wincing, he opens one eye and wheezes out,]

Nice aim...

[That zap could have easily hit him too, wow??]

[sparkstrikes]

[Yeah, she's just going to shoot those tentacles, raising her gunblade with one hand and pulling the trigger three times while the other holds onto Zack.]

Had a lot of practice. [And without wasting anymore time...] We need to get out of—

[Her shout is interrupted when something reaches out and grabs hold of one of her ankles and tries to yank her down to the ground, but she tightens her hold on him, using him as a pillar for support while she attempts to kick it away (she'll apologize later). A stomp is enough to send it reeling back.]

Shoot one and three more show up. Does this happen a lot around here!?

C

[crystalrepose]

[There was movement in the corner of her eye; Miriam turned, recognizing Zack and starting to frown at the Rift's sudden appearance. That time already? At least they weren't getting dumped into the water, it was frigid this time of year-

It wasn't a person that came tumbling through. Something of a lightless black thrashed out of the tear in the world, a vine or tendril or something that seized his neck.]

Zack?! Zack!

[There wasn't time to reach for her sword, less to think; Miriam's form blurred into a beam of light, racing forward across the ship. When she materialized beside Zack, it was with a jagged lance of ice forming in her hand. She stabbed the tentacle with it like a punch dagger, wind beginning to whistle and whirl around her other hand.]

[activatingcombatmode]

[It happens fast. One moment, he's struggling to breathe and struggling hard to pull himself out of that slimy grip.

The next, Miriam is at his side and stabbing the tentacle with a shard of ice.]

Miri- [He rasps, unable to finish the word.] Get-- ...!!

[Get back?!

While she prepares to attack again, there's another tentacle shooting out of the same blackened rift that snapping out to grab her too!!]

[crystalrepose]

[She saw further movement to the side--but instead of avoiding it, Miriam kept her focus on severing that awful limb, frost spreading from where she stabbed it.

The second tentacle instead smacked solidly into her torso, coiling so tight around her chest she felt the breath whistling out of her lungs. Miriam grimaced, finally turning her attention back to it; she could feel her back crystal jabbing into it, but whatever this tendril was made of didn't seem to concerned with that damage. It continued to constrict until stars burst in her vision.

And--one of her Shards began to move, wiggling like a loose tooth before being forced out of her chest, like her body was expelling a splinter. When this Shard stabbed into the tentacle, it found some purchase--burrowing into the murky thing and leaving a smattering of crystalline petals behind. Again it happened--and when Miriam tried to strike at it, the ice had gone from her hand. The whirlwind, too.]

b

[makoglow]

[ Yeah, he can't say that he's ever received a request to catch a bunch of fleas. He's not entirely sure that this is a serious request. Aren't fleas really difficult to see, let alone snatch? ]

Giant bug zapper maybe?

[ Well that would kill them but - ]

Setting up a blood bag trap?

[ Okay a little morbid there, Cloud. But not necessarily wrong? Fleas drink blood, right? ]

[activatingcombatmode]

...

[He stares at Cloud. Bro.]

Someone's creative today.

[makoglow]

Is it creative if it's practical? If you want to catch something, you have to bait it with something it wants, right?

[ A shrug. That's really all he means? ]

wildcard for a

[afflatusexarch]

[ Oh no no. Zack isn't going to find Raha right away. Nope. Can't have that. The Miqo'te is crouched into a small hiding spot on the ship. Snowballs have been prepared in different locations, all with a good line of sight. And G'raha has an invisibility spell.

So he waits until Zack is adequately distracted before -

POW POW!

Two snowballs to the back of the head. ]

[activatingcombatmode]

[Piff piff!! The snowballs hit him square on the back of the head! Bull's eye!

Zack makes a startled noise and drops the shovel in his hand and whirls around.]

Hey!?

[... Alright, does someone want to play a little game? He likes games. Even if G'raha is going to cheat at this game with that invisibility spell. He scoops up two snowballs and scans the area.]

Alright, show yourself and I'll go easy on you. Come on.

[afflatusexarch]

[ Oh he is not making a sound. Not from his mouth, anyway. Though there might be the sound of boots crunching against snow. Hard to tell where it is coming from, as soon that disappears as well.

But beware!

There are two more snowballs coming at Zack. This time? A completely different direction. ]