THEY SPIT ON A POOR MAN / o, raid planning & masks

[beck.]

    Not even a full month of peace and already creatures were being abducted out of the blue. Unfortunately not by aliens, but rather by pirate-bastards with fish breath. The thought of, in simplest terms, the bitch that waltzed right into their home and probably was torturing a blind man at the very moment was enough to make his blood -- er, apparition boil with a frigid rage. Claws curled into the boggy soil as he paused in his tracks, a tattered sack gripped tightly in half-exposed jaws and dragging through the mud behind him. The boy had done a little... spelunking, or something of the sort, and after rifling through musty shops and storage, he was nearly ready to get Vladimir back in their ranks. Not liked he actually cared if Vlad was safe or anything; he just wanted to show Pincher and his obnoxious crew not to mess with them. If anything, Vlad deserved to be captured and forgotten, right? It was his fault after all, letting someone sneak up on him even with his "other heightened senses." Despite his attempts at distancing himself from the people dwelling under his command, the sight of Amunet's anger upon discovering the discarded bandanna stabbed an equal hatred in his lifeless heart. He hadn't felt the fiery demand for revenge in a long, long time. What was this place doing to him? Part of him despised it -- I hate it, I hate it, I hate it -- but the timid half of his brain almost craved the attention and respect he was receiving. Almost.

    Unable to clear his cluttered thoughts properly, the poltergeist finally stalked towards his claimed statue, scrabbling onto the mossy stone just like he had done the couple times before. Beck wasn't fond of hauling objects larger than his own emaciated build up with him, abandoning his burlap sack at the base of the rubble. A feral glint to his lantern-like glare more common in predators chasing down prey than in sullen ghosts, his spine crackled with sparks of charging electricity before he could wrangle his seething anger back under numbed control. Scarred features still contorted into a grimace, he tapped his claws on the lichen-strangled rock, tilted his chemical-stained chin back, and crowed up into the air, "Hey! If any of y'all actually care 'bout the blind fella Vlad, I'd suggest y'all get on over here." Expectantly a concerned crowd slunk over at the mention of the missing cougar. Clueless faces quite possibly wondering what in the world he was shouting about soon swarmed and stared, and once enough rogues had approached, the snarling poltergeist continued with a bitter wheeze, "For those livin' under a rock, one of the folks here got snatched by who I'm guessing was the Guru-chick from the Typhoon. I could get pissed at how I told ya 'not to talk to strangers' and to 'not trust people at the border' but whatever. Vlad's been captured and we gotta do somethin' 'bout it." He straightened slightly, his illusion of existence rippling and distorting as he struggled for words. Twitching whiskers glistening with agitated voltage, Beck swiped away the vibrant blue drool from his disfigured snout and jumped right into explaining his plan. "So, what are we gonna do? We're gonna march right up to those pirate freaks and steal 'em back. 'Course it'd be dumb to actually do that, but I've got a pretty basic plan. Those of y'all who can fight, and even those who can't, are gonna come with me to their border-entrance-shit-thing, and hide yourselves while I distract them. Two or three of y'all will sneak off and try to find Vlad -- probably in a smelly dungeon or somethin'. Don't try to fight anybody or draw attention, just in and out, ya get it? For those with me, if things get bad on m' end, and they will, then I will give some type of signal for y'all to attack so we can stall longer. As soon as Vlad is back with us, then we can leave." It was simple enough, a diversion for the clan while others do the dirty work. Yet despite all his ragged wheezing, Beck wasn't entirely finished. Finally addressing the lumpy sack stuffed with unknown contents just below him with a stiff gesture of a freezing paw, the boy sloppily untied the sack and tipped it over. Its contents spilled at the crowd's feet, revealing various costume masks of all shapes and sizes and colors. "Also, I did some diggin' 'round in the old l'il shops and found these -- figured it could be an intimidation tactic or somethin' to make us look badass and not like the wimps y'all are. Bonus: it'll protect your face for the most part, 'less you wanna end up with your eyes gorged, uh, I mean gouged out. Pick whatever ya want, I don't care. Or find one yourself, I don't care either." It was an impulsive idea with little function, but he had found a bunch of creepy masks sitting around, and they needed a use, so why not? Except he wouldn't be taking one of the masks just yet; he needed to be as inconspicuous and believing as possible in order to fool the Typhoon for just a little while. Stretching a scarred arm down into the sack and shoving aside masks, he eventually snagged up a rusted paint can by a wire handle. Popping open the tin lid with hooked claws, he dropped the black paint down next to the masks as well. "Also-also, use this totally-non-toxic paint to try and uh, camouflage yourselves. Blend in so you don't end up dead." With that settled, he reared back onto his hind legs, standing in an awkward pose similar to a meerkat with paws tucked under his chest before flopping back on his haunches, and concluding, "With all that settled, which unlucky two of y'all wants to be the ones to sneak out and get Vlad? Volunteers?"

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[Belladonna]

[align=center][div style="width: 450px;; text-align: justify"][size=8pt]Hey! If any of y'all actually care 'bout the blind fella Vlad, I'd suggest y'all get on over here.

Of course she did, of course she cared. Belladonna's head swivelled from where she'd been speaking to an npc to Beck's direction, and she padded forward - she imagined this was the rescue raid. Padding over and hearing Beck's words, she watched as he announced the raid, and then offered everyone a mask from the sack.

Padding forward, the petit she-cat peered into the spilled contents of the sack before her - she watched as her clanmates dived in, and as some of the common masks - aggressive ones in black and clown masks - she glanced again, spotting a white and purple mask - and she reached in and snatched it, pulling back.

Once she backed off, she peered at the mask - she'd chosen well. It was a kitsune kabuki mask with round, angled eyes and a mischievous smile. The mask was white, with the exception of the eyes being lined with purple, as was the smiling grin on the mouth - as well as teardrops falling from the eyes, the mask curling around into ear-like ends. Belladonna glanced at the mask curiously for a moment, before turning it around, and bringing it up to her face, tying it behind her head.

She peered up at Beck, new-found confidence making the adrenaline pump in her, and she spoke up. "I can go in the rescue party. If we attack at dusk, my coat will blend into the shadows." she mewed, her voice somewhat hollow and eerie behind the mask, like she wasn't entirely there.

"Speech."

[Sweetopia]

//trackkkkk

[COSMIIX]

[glow=GLOWCOLOR,2,300]▶ AMUNET - TAGS - TANGLEWOOD - ROGUE - FEMALE PRONOUNS - JAGUAR ◀[/glow]

They had taken Vladimir and if they thought for one moment that Amunet wouldn't be there to retrieve her blind friend then everyone must have been stupider than they seemed. The jaguaress walked over hiding most of her form with her cloak and she wasn't adorned in her usual jewelry since there was no time for a petite little prince to be roaming into the battlefield. No, it was time to be a Ghana and she was going to live up to the warrior bit of her surname as she approached with narrowed pupils seeing different array of masks and silently watched as Belladonna picked an awfully pretty one. Amunet's eyes swept across them before selecting a dark brown mask with faint silk-like material that was translucent at the bottom of the mask and it had a spots of a darker brown along with a few streaks of silver, she would have loved one in gold though gold was more notable than silver. Her curved ears angled forward listening closely to what was being said, she didn't care as of right now but she was going to make that bitch snakefood once she was through with the Typhoon.

"speech"

[- oberon]

Vlad? Gone? Oberon hadn't known them, but if one of their neighbors was gone, they wanted to help as best as they could. Of course, Oberon didn't have much battle experience (read: none), so they weren't quite sure how much help they could be.

They came forward anyway, looking at the masks that Beck had dumped onto the ground. They sifted slowly through the pile, but there were few masks that would have suited them. They were either tooshiny and garish for their tastes. However, after several minutes of examining the masks, they found a barren mask that was similar to the shape of a butterfly.

Oberon whisked the mask away to the painting supplies where they began mixing and preparing paint. If the masks were supposed to be intimidating,  they could paint it like a moth.

"If no one else volunteers for the rescue party, I'll go. I feel like someone more experienced should get a chance first," they said before getting to work on the mask.

[valo-kas]

“[color=salmon]don’t give une shité nor une fucké ‘bout vladly but i’d go if uh. you could guarantee that no fighting would befall my sweet, waifish asscheeks.” valo-kas chimed, looking much more interested in the masks than the plan in place to retrieve their blind boy. the mutant dragged a scrap of cloth free, black with holes for eyes and a mouth. this’ll do. they didn’t need any fancy shit. ’course i WILL need a third eye hole but... but oh well.

[Dog]

Not a word understood... but that was nothing new. All Dog did was wander over, flop onto his side, and let out an exhausted huff of frustration. Where could a dog get his attention around here? Nevertheless, he wouldn't be participating in this so-called raid. He was too well-rounded and polite for such a thing, unless they offered him treats to go along... then maybe he'd think about it.

[Morgan]

Morgan approached the group next, already donning its icy mask. The dog did not speak right away, instead walking straight toward Beck.

All that the samoyed understood was that something important was happening. Seeing so many others covering their faces like it did made the situation seem much more serious. Though the dog did not know what was happening or why, the gathering certainly beat being alone.

Having picked up on a new word since it last saw Beck, Morgan muttered, "Yes." The dog used the affirmative both to sound friendly to the familiar face and to signify that it wanted to help.

[madster]

[align=center][div style="width: 400px; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; color: ;;"]Circe was next to approach after Morgan. With a little triumphant huff, the child quickly picked a mask that was much-too-big for her little face and put it on. "They'll never know what hit them!" She cried out in a triumphant yell, unaware of the fact she was probably too young to participate in this. Maybe she could just tell Beck she was immortal and just stuck in the body of a 5-month-old? Who knew. She knew what she wanted, though, and that was the blood of their enemies on the ground.

[beck.]

    Quite the crowd of volunteers. Glancing upwards defeatedly and puffing out a stale breath towards the disheveled tufts of fur drooping into his vision, Beck settled for eight willing participants. In a perfect world, all of Tanglewood would have come crawling from the woodworks, but he supposed the lurkers out there were too busy or some other excuse. The poltergeist's form rippled and distorted for a fragment of a second, his scowl darkening as he impatiently wheezed, "Guess that's all of y'all that are gonna show up, but let's get this over with. Bella, Valo, you two probably ain't gonna be useful front and center, so congrats, you've been picked for the sneaking around job. Take Happy with ya, too, if ya can even find him that is." He gave a grumbling huff at the unlikely pair, and hopefully having a peacemaker would keep their two clashing personas from turning on each other. "Remember, as soon as ya find Vlad, get outta there immediately. As for the rest of y'all, go get ready or whatever ya need to do. I'll be waiting, but tick tock."

    Concluding his rambling instructions and with a stinging throat, he clumsily jumped from his personal announcement statue. Beck ended up nearly slipping on an unused costume mask, and after a shaky landing, he stalked away from the small raid party. "And for those of y'all not speaking up, ya can still come on the raid -- the more, the merrier. And ya won't prove yourselves complete leeches to the clan." He added coldly over his shoulder before he settled down to wait next to brambles, lantern-like eyes glowering in the shade.

/ link to raid: click
[member=87]Belladonna[/member] [member=147]valo-kas[/member] [member=105]happycamper[/member] go ahead and make a thread for the vlad rescue for you three + vlad

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