escordvi | Player Plot: Great Ape Nappa

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Player Plot: Great Ape Nappa

Who: Nappa, Zelda, Darin, Emet-Selch, Miriam, Gohan, Sonic, Ranma Saotome

Status: Closed to those participating in the event.

Where: Nappa's hideout in a less-populated area of Elah.

What: Looking for an illicit payday, Nappa kidnaps Zelda to hold her for ransom. However, he makes sure the pay-off happens on the night of the full moon, so he can play his trump card if things go south...

Warnings: Gonna be violence.

[ooc: Will be adding toplevels throughout the day as I'm going to be travelling overnight and trying to pace myself.]

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Emet-Selch can see two souls inside the room. One is more definitely Zelda's and the other is unknown. He's not the sort to go crashing into a room for a rescue, no matter how urgent. Over the ages, he's seen all sorts of wild plots and so, although he has absolutely no inkling of Vegeta's instructions to self-destruct, he pauses outside the door.

"Zelda is most certainly inside," he says quietly. "But there is someone else in there with her, quite close. They may have a weapon drawn."

Miriam had been feeling...off of late. The longer the night drew on, the more antsy and restless she felt. The moon seemed unusually bright and distracting, though Miriam was certain it was the same as it always was.

But there was a job to do; a friend was in danger, there was the sound of violence behind her. She clung to that purpose with a laserlike focus even more tightly than usual, and ignored the moon presence crawling at the back of her mind. She didn't know this person well, but they seemed of unified purpose--and that was enough for Miriam. She frowned a bit in worry; every instinct screeched at her to do something, tear off the door, break the windows, fight whatever was inside--keeping those thoughts muzzled felt as difficult as a fight would be. But she had to. Whoever had abducted Zelda was clearly prepared for violence, and in such a small space she'd be caught in the midst of it. Rushing in was no option at all.

"One of my familiars could get a closer look," the Shardbinder said, voice quiet and tense. There's a brief glow from the crystal on Miriam's back and a bit of light in the palm of her hand, and a creature hops out of the circle of light to the ground.

It's a rat, or close to one; maybe a bit bigger and shaggier than usual, with a blue color to its otherwise beady eyes. Its magic signature was similar to Miriam's own for the most part, as if it were a projection of herself. The rat sat up to polish a bit of dust off its whiskers, and set off to find a crevice or gap in the wall a rodent could squeeze its way into. It seemed run down and dark in there; plenty of hiding places for a little creature.

Emet-Selch by contrast is a picture of calm as he stares at the familiar then watches it scuttle off. If he knew this woman better then perhaps he would realise something is off. But as it is, he simply assumes that she's concerned about rescuing Zelda.

"Don't be reckless. The last thing we need is for the other one inside to feel provoked," he cautions. He can track her familiar's faint glimmer even through the wall. He watches it - and the pair within the room - carefully in case there is a need for him to take sudden action.

For the past couple days since her capture, Zelda has been a perfectly well-behaved hostage... although it didn't start out that way. As soon as Nappa landed at his hideout on Elah, she tried to conjure her sealing magic to shackle him in place with rings of light so she could use the Purah Pad to teleport herself back to the safety of the Starmetal Forge. But when Zelda waved her hand, nothing happened. In fact, she couldn't sense her sealing magic at all. It was like when she first arrived in this world, before getting her tattoos-- her magic was completely inaccessible.

With no way to escape the brutish Saiyan and no hope for convincing him to let her go (she tried that on the flight over here), Zelda decided the best course of action was to obey Nappa's orders. It seemed like the only thing he cared about was the ransom money he was trying to extort from Darin in exchange for Zelda's safe return... something Darin wouldn't give Nappa if he killed her. And while she hated the thought of Darin handing over the fortune he had worked so hard to earn just to save Zelda, what other choice was there? If either of them tried to do anything but follow Nappa's orders, the Saibaman clinging to Zelda's chair would self-detonate, killing her along with it.

The night of the hand-off arrives. And no sooner did Darin arrive outside the cabin and bellow for Nappa to come face him did the Saiyan's carefully laid plans begin to crumble. Even though Nappa prepared (and probably even hoped) for a fight, it doesn't take long for things to get out of hand.

Maybe she can take advantage of the chaos outside to try to reason with her guard. Nappa has very generously explained to Zelda about Saibamen and their mindless obedience to their masters, but the one guarding her seems different from the others. It's capable of speech and seems to be able to think for itself, to an extent. If it's that self-aware, then it probably knows what will happen to it if Nappa orders it to self-detonate. Surely it would prefer not to die.

"Come on, Vegeta, this is your chance! Run away now while Nappa is distracted. You can go somewhere else and live freely without worrying about being ordered to self-detonate."

Engaged as she is with talking to the Saibaman, Zelda has not yet noticed Miriam's familiar. But the rat will be able to see that the small, run-down cabin is empty except for Zelda, tied up with rope, and the Saibaman diligently clinging to the back of her chair. The front door to the cabin has been torn clean off and the fight between Darin and Great Ape Nappa is visible beyond.

"Gya-gya?" The Saibaman cranes its head over Zelda's shoulder as she urges him to run. She's the only one who really talks to him. Master just gives him orders or ignores him. Or yells. But that's why he's Master. Saibaman must obey.

But Zelda is nice. The difference in how she treats him even as a prisoner and how Nappa's talk of making it big with this score never seems to include Vegeta, well it...sits kind of ill inside Vegeta's chest. He's gotten pretty used to being alive the last few months. To the point where not being alive anymore induces something akin to dread. It's an existential crisis that perhaps no other Saibaman in the history of the universe has ever had to contemplate.

"Gyaa..." Writing is one thing, but Vegeta's lips still quiver as he tries to stumble over the correct sounds. "gyo...waaare?"

"I won't," Miriam assured Emet-Selch, voice quiet without a whisper's hissing words. The rest of her stilled as she focused her attention on her familiar, her gaze distant while peering through its eyes.

The rat scurries within the cabin, poking its nose into dark corners, seeing if there was anything edible in the dust and debris. Typical rat things. At least one of its blue eyes stayed fixed on Zelda as it explored, and Miriam relayed what she saw and heard.

"The...creature there, the one with Zelda. She's talking to it. Trying to convince it to leave. But it can kill her."

"Self-detonate? Well, that is rather extreme."

If they approach this the wrong way, even they could be hurt.

"Then we need to neutralise the one holding her," he mutters. "Without alerting them. Mimicking its master is out of the question. She's trying to break his hold over it."

Hmm...

"I don't suppose there is anything above them which could knock the other one out? Some convenient lantern with a rope your familiar can gnaw on?"

Just like in fictional stories!

"'Go where?'" Zelda repeats Vegeta's words to make sure she heard him right. "Well, anywhere you want. This cabin is on the back of a tremendous whale-- you could explore the rest of it. There's so much to discover outside of this cabin."

Then a thought occurs to her. "Nappa set loose a bunch of your brethren tonight, didn't he? You could go after them. Find them and teach them everything you've learned about being alive."

Meanwhile, a look up at the ceiling on the rat's part will reveal that yes, there is a conveniently placed lantern hanging above Zelda and the Saibaman. A single grimy oil lantern is the only source of light in the room, suspended from the ceiling by an equally-grimy length of rope which runs across the ceiling and down the wall that now sports an empty door frame instead of the front door.

Fortunately, that rope would be easy to chew through and the lantern would hopefully fall on the Saibaman instead of Zelda. Unfortunately, the rope is plainly in the Saibaman's field of view. Vegeta might see the rat if it goes to chew on the rope... but it also might not, if it's really engaged in Zelda's conversation. Or maybe the Saibaman wouldn't even care about the rat. Did Nappa's orders to blow up anyone who approached Zelda include rats? Who's to say?

Worry gnawed at Miriam immediately, though it was muted by her focus. Mission first. Feeling later. Miriam would throw herself on that grenade without thought--but she had to get there. The open door was a maddening temptation; so close and yet forbidden. Her familiar had so far been undetected at least, investigating the rest of the cabin. It was largely empty--but not entirely.

"Yes, there is. Nothing to climb except the chair Zelda is in, though. Her captor can see where the lantern's tied, though I don't think they've seen my familiar yet."

But surely an animal taking shelter in an isolated building wouldn't be so amiss. It was only a rat, a blackish thing amongst other shadows in the cabin, taking interest in something to chew on. It stayed close to the wall, its movements slow and cautious. Just a rodent. Just taking a nibble of this cord here, quietly holding the cable still with both paws so the lantern wouldn't wobble, and hoping Zelda could keep the cabbage-thing's attention.

"If you summon it back for a moment, I can apply a spell to make it invisible. And since the door is open...a little background noise and sound surely won't be suspicious. I can cover any noise it makes."

Maybe a bit of wind to mimic blowback from explosions and such. Impact sounds which are already happening faintly anyway.

Should Miriam agree, he will start drawing the spell in the air with his finger, leaving behind faintly glowing lines. Can't risk snapping his fingers here, even if it would be faster. She can then send her rat off to do its job immediately.

Miriam nodded, and the familiar left its task to slip through the crack in the wall it came in through rather than risk the door. It sat still and unafraid while the spell settled on it, the blue of its eyes the last thing to disappear.

It did take a moment for Miriam to adjust to not being able to see where her familiar was going, but there wasn't time for a grace period. Off it went, little depressions in the grass and dirt where it stumbled the only signs of its passage. But it had no trouble gnawing at the cord once it got back, the clicking of its incisors hidden by the wind.

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Player Plot: Great Ape Nappa

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