Complete Eastern Brisshal What a Clustercluck

[Alcea]

Sumire was making her usual rounds in the village. She didn't do this often, but supplies for travel weren't cheap and though she didn't make much, it was better than nothing. It was pretty late in the afternoon, a good time to go around and sell her services. A quick blessing and a paper talisman for good luck. In reality, it was a light healing spell focused on relieving tiredness and pain relief. Still, half of doing well was feeling well and she never got any complaints. It probably helped that she didn't really charge anything, instead asking for donations to maintain upkeep of the shrine. In retrospect, she was pretty lucky that nobody asked to see the shrine. Sumire wasn't quite ready to take anyone else there yet. It was a sanctuary for her, the last link she had to her life before.

After tending to her latest customer, a young farmhand looking for some luck in love, she gathered her belongings and started towards the marketplace. There was some sort of commotion there, judging by crowd that was gathering. It didn't seem to be anything bad, since nobody was running away screaming. Curiosity getting the better of her, she weaved her way through the crowd till she could get a better look. Things like this happened pretty often back then, she'd been the cause of a few commotions alongside Leila.

In the epicenter, stood an avian beastfolk girl surrounded by a 2 crowds. One of chickens and the other of people, notably further away. One of the chickens stopped pecking at the ground and snapped its gaze to her, maintaining direct eye contact for a few seconds before going back to pecking at the ground. She murmured, more to herself than anything,

"Did that chicken just... threaten me?"

Somewhat perturbed, Sumire opted to stay out of the den of beasts and stood closer to the crowd of people. She could feel the malice from the birds, or maybe it was just her past experience talking. Snapping out of her thoughts, she focused on listening to the beastfolk girl who was trying to sell some sort of invention. She really didn't like the situation, and looking at the chickens, she wasn't alone in that sentiment. The crowd was dense enough that escape was impossible at this point, all Sumire could do was watch with growing dread.

 

[Eve Lightscar]

Eve squinted over the crowd of people. He had entered the world of the game in a small clearing in a nearby forest, and had bumbled his way into a village after a few dozen minutes of wandering. He hadn't seen such a collection of people before, and certainly not any group so diverse. Though the figures of the people furthest away from him were so blurred so as to be indistinct, he could pick out a few individuals short enough to be children, figures with lupine ears or long swaying tails or towering horns growing out of their heads. Sometimes it was still hard to believe what he was seeing--or, mostly not seeing, as the situations was.

He turned his attention to what the crowd seemed to be focusing on. Standing by the center of a marketplace was a single figure, a girl who appeared to have large brown wings. There was a moving mass by her feet; upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a little crowd of chickens. Strange.

"Come one, come all!" the winged girl said, casting her arms about. "The world of Silkie's Synthetic Solutions awaits! I am here to present to you all my latest and greatest invention: the Chicken Trance-inator!"

The girl produced something out of her pocket, holding it high in the air. To Eve's recently quite poor vision, it looked merely like a stick. But as he examined it, there did seem to be something about it, something unusual... What was it, though? He couldn't quite put his eye on it.

"For the low, low price of 49 gold pieces, you too could own your very own Chicken Trance-inator! Yes, you! And you! And even you!"

When Silkie pointed at him, Eve wondered if he ought to take it as a mark of shame that she had singled him out. This situation wasn't growing any less inane as he stood around and listened to her. But before he could even muster the decision to simply turn around and walk away, a flash of light from the stick caught his attention, the tip of it glowing a bright cyan.

Strangely enough, no one else seemed to notice. Silkie certainly didn't, as she continued to speak, "Now, this may look like just an ordinary stick, but it was made with the very best magitech that Silkie's Synthetic Solutions has to offer. Materials mined from the very depths of Beginner's Cave! Imbued with the essence of the Power Stones! And now, my friends, you all get to see a demonstration of my Chicken Trance-inator, the number one solution to calming hostile chickens, which I understand to be a very big problem here in the Maithe Woodlands."

Silkie reached down and snatched up a chicken. It protested, very vigorously and very loudly, but Silkie held it down firmly against the ground with one hand, the other brandishing her stick. "Now watch closely, everyone, as I put this chicken under a trance in the blink of an eye!"

Which was, of course, when everything went wrong.

 

[Alcea]

To most people, it can come across as a surprise to learnt that chickens are omnivores. Not only that, but they are very willing omnivores who have no problem killing and eating their own. A lesser known fact, since this is exclusive to people that are willing to enter an illegal VRMMO and spend their time observing chicken behavior, is that the chickens in TerraSphere are extremely territorial and confrontational. The rumor mill had it that the reason for this behavior is that every so often, a blood worm larva would go to the surface in search of easy prey. It would then, become enhanced feed, for the chickens of the Maithe Woodlands. Silkie, who was operating on knowledge that came from the 'real' world, failed to realize the differences. She'd done chicken hypnotism practically hundreds of times by now on the farm back home and had it down to a science. It was easy enough to do with a piece of chalk or marker. Now armed with her new Magitech inventions, it would be impossible to fail.

She failed.

It appeared to work for a few seconds, as the clucking died down and the one chicken Silkie had restrained stared intently at the line she had drawn in the dirt. Then, the chicken looked at her right in the eyes and gave a single, furious cluck. The other chickens slowly turned to look at the beastfolk girl. She backed away slowly, giving a nervous gulp. By now, the crowd was silent enough that you could hear when a feather dropped to the floor. Silkie, in a last ditch attempt to keep the peace, tried to communicate with the chickens.

To her, it was an attempt at an apology. To the chickens, it was a declaration of war. The world became a tornado of violence and feathers as the chickens swarmed everything in their path between them and Silkie. Blood, feathers and fowl language scattered into the air like rain in a storm. Sumire had managed to make her way to a stall and duck underneath it, taking refuge amidst the chaos. A few of the beasts tried to make their way to her refuge, but she warded them off with chastising spritzes of water and the feathered fiends went off in search of easier prey. It was kind of hard to pick out any specific people or shapes when you could barely think over the squawking and screaming, but she could make out the figure of a pretty tall man in the din of violence. She gestured at him to get in the impromptu shelter, then started working on a ritual to ward off evil creatures. It would work on these chickens, right?

 

[Eve Lightscar]

It all happened so fast. One minute, Eve was watching a snake oil salesbirdwoman try to sell a stick (albeit, an inexplicably glowing stick) as though it were some sort of life-changing device. The next minute, the air was filled with the sound of clucking and screaming, the latter mostly coming from Silkie herself.

One blurry chicken made an attempt at charging for Eve's toes. He quickly stepped back, narrowly avoiding a beak to the ankle, and snagged the crazed fowl up to prevent it from trying again. Which was a bad move, however, as the chicken then made an attempt for Eve's hands next. Thankfully, this was rather easy to predict, and Eve managed to adjust his grip on the bird so that it couldn't reach out to attack his hands. He set the bird down and pushed it away, where it refocused its targets on... something in the distance, Eve didn't know what, and charged away.

What a time he was having. Not even half a day into this game, and he was already being attacked by rampaging chickens. As was everything around him. People scattered throughout the marketplace as they tried to avoid the crazed birds, or ward them away from their stalls and belongings. In the middle of all the commotion, Eve could pick out Silkie's form bolting away into the woods, her wings flapping as furiously as that of the chickens chasing after her in a bid to get more speed.

Eve's attention was then caught by a short white-haired girl. She looked to be shooing him away, as she was working some kind of ability. A ritual, from the looks of it. But there was an awfully large number of chickens approaching her, and Eve wondered if he could do something to help.

...Oh. Of course. Magic. He had some too, didn't he? Eve flexed his hand and activated his in-game menu, trying to block out the chaos around him as he searched for something that could be relevant. Light spells, earth spells--earth? Hmm... Mudtrap? 'Turn the earth into a bog of thick, viscous mud. Slows movement and can even entrap targets.' Yes, that sounded useful indeed.

As Eve selected the skill, he was subjected to the unsettling feeling of his body moving without his conscious input. His arms extended, hands moving in shapes he didn't understand as he felt warmth pooling in the palms of his hands.

As well as a growing, blinding light.

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Eve had forgotten about that part of his character creation. Being able to literally see magic had sounded helpful at the time, but he was beginning to see the downsides, just as quickly as he was about to not be seeing anything at all.

"Wait!" he said in a panic, trying to get his body to stop the spell that the game was already in the middle of casting. It was no use, so all Eve could do was to shut his eyes against the glare as the spell completed itself. He did not know where he was aiming, or what the result would be. Certainly nothing good, if how the rest of his day was going was any indication.

Rolls

Save
1d100 (63) + 0 = 63

Successfully avoided Chicken Attacks

Rolls

Mastery Check
1d100 (3) + 0 = 3

Geomancy | Eve Lightscar | Clustercluck

 

[Alcea]

The ritual was going well. Too well in fact. There was no way she should have been able to complete the ritual without being interrupted by something. Looking around, she could see that a few chickens that tried to approach her were covered in mud. And come to think of it, so was she. Her nonexistent blood turned to ice, had the chickens figured out how to cast magic? They were all doomed. But the sensation passed as she noticed that the man she saw earlier was still around. And also stuck knee deep in mud. He was probably the caster because the only other possibility would spell their doom and Sumire was always more of an optimist.

The chickens squawked and clucked and cried out for blood but they were at least rendered impotent for now. She made to stand up and help people get out before the chickens got free but... right. She was still knee deep in mud. Could she wash the mud off with a bit of water? That struck her as a remarkably bad idea as she didn't have enough fine control to ensure that she wouldn't free the fowl demons as well. As she was pondering her options, a voice cut through the chaos.

"Not to worry citizens! Although this situation may look bad, oh man this is a mess, I have just the solution! The Chicken Pacifier-inator. With just one click of a button, all of these chickens will be nice and docile. Behold!"

Silkie's voice had just enough hints of panic and mania that Sumire knew she was doomed if the beastfolk girl continued. Nothing good could ever come of magic and magitech and this whole incident just proved her right. Panicking, she turned to the other person caught up in the mess.

"Hello there, you wouldn't happen to have some sort of way out wouldn't you? I don't know what the Chicken Pacifier-inator does and I really don't want to find out."

Hopefully the guy had something up his sleeve. And that something wouldn't make the situation worse again. Running through her own repertoire of rituals, maybe she could cleanse the mud off of her? But there was so much of it and she was pretty sure the whole village would be destroyed before she freed herself with that method. Not for the first time, she cursed her stupid self from 4 years ago. Everything she could do needed way too much time to be useful.

 

[Eve Lightscar]

Still blinking spots out of his vision, Eve turned in the approximate direction of the voice addressing him. There was a whole lot of white, so he assumed it was the girl that had been trying to do something about the chickens.

He very much agreed with the panic in her voice. Eve had been here for all of ten minutes and already he didn't want anything to do with chickens, or any Chicken Whatsitcalled-inators ever again. Unfortunately, he had no idea what to do either.

"No," he said back, grimacing as he rubbed at his eyes. When he could mostly see again, he gestured at the churn of mud surrounding them. "This was the one idea I had and it didn't exactly turn out well."

At a loss, he could only watch as Silkie pulled something out of the large rucksack she carried around. This was faintly glowing with magic as well. Eve could practically hear the alarm bells ringing as Silkie triumphantly pressed her button, and...

...Nothing happened.

Well, actually something did happen. The chickens continued to rampage, but this time, they all seemed to turn towards Silkie. Slowly, slowly, they began to encircle her, causing the avian beastfolk to let out a nervous laugh.

"Aaaand, that's my cue to go!" said Silkie. "Remember, all of Silkie's Synthetic Solutions can be yours for 49.99 gold, and we can negotiate installment payments tooooooooo!" The last words faded out as Silkie began racing away from the horde of angry chickens that was now running out of town.

"My chickens!" a farmer cried in dismay. "She's making off with my prize chickens!"

 

[Alcea]

Magitech has always lead to the downfall of its inventor, and this time was no exception. Sumire watched as Silkie ran for her life against the horde of chickens. The farmer's proclamation signaled the start of a new adventure, a brave hero to rise up to the task of wrangling the demonic chickens. Frankly though, Sumire was glad that those birds were gone from the town. However, the idea of the chickens having free reign of the forest was... unsettling. That, however, would be a problem for someone with less sense than brains to solve.

Sumire looked at the other person caught up in the mess and felt a sense of kinship. Both of them were covered in mud, miserable and just looked absolutely done with everything. She didn't really want to invite anyone else to the shrine, but just leaving the poor guy covered in mud wasn't something she could do with a clean conscience. She steeled herself and tried to figure out how to not put her own foot into her own mouth. Talking was never a strong suit for her. What was she even supposed to call the guy? He didn't look from around here, maybe a new Player or at least someone from another town.

"Uh, Traveler, my name is Sumire. I offer you the hospitality of the shrine for a single day and night in light of recent events. It is only a short distance from the town and the shrine hosts cleansing pools where one may wash away the impurities in their soul."

What the hell was she saying? Whatever, hopefully she got her point across. It didn't really feel right to do so, but she felt like she had to at least offer. It was just one person just this time, she'd get over it. Mud was seeping into some of her joints now, that would be a pain to wash out. She didn't even want to think about the amount of laundry work it would take to wash out her clothes. Magic let her cheat a little, but it was still going to be really tiring work.

 

[Eve Lightscar]

Silkie disappeared into the woods, taking the chickens with her. Eve stared after her for a bit, momentarily warring with himself about whether or not he should go after her. But he was still shin-deep in mud, and Silkie seemed like the person to have about two dozen more Chicken Whatever-inators in her pockets. Therefore, Eve's decision was a very strong NO. It was just some chickens, and the nearby woods. Silkie could handle herself, probably.

With a sigh, Eve turned towards the white-haired girl nearby, the one that he had just plastered with mud. He did feel bad about that, no matter how unwittingly he had done it.

"A shrine, huh?" Eve hadn't seen any shrine around these parts, but he'd barely seen anything except a flurry of angry feathers. Not like he was an authority here. "I might have to take you up on that," he said, glancing down at his stained clothing.

What a way to start his foray into this game. Eve shook his head and tried to put it all behind him. He needed to get his bearings ASAP, and making a friend (or, an acquaintance, at the very least) would only be beneficial. He looked towards the white-haired robotic girl, and extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, by the way. My name is- Eve," he said, only briefly pausing remembering to go by his in-game name.

A brief rest at this shrine, some time to clean himself up. Then he'd start looking.