[TINY CAT PEOPLE] VOID SESSION: ACT 4

[Guest]

we may consider having Illusio use their magic ball if it really comes down to it

[Guest]

We need you, Jaspers. Your family need you to do this.

[King-Clod]

First things first, have Marnet, Illusio, and Cynthia get Whipp, Lady, and Slick behind them.
Ask our teammates any other vital info about Bungles and have our TCPs open fire, maybe have Illusio cast a illusion spell or throw a pie in the Bungle's face if they're willing.

[Guest]

Just want to ask, is this comic still active? It is very good!

[skinstealer]

it will be active again sometime this year, as soon as maybequest (an 18+ comic accessible to those who are of age and signed up for this forum) is done with its current arc!

[Guest]

Wasn't really expecting a reply this fast, but thanks! I love this comic so far!

[skinstealer]

haha its all good, we have a bot in our discord that lets us know when forum posts go up so whoops i basically get instant pinged for this stuff- feel free to look around the forums and make yourself at home in the meantime!

[skinstealer]

 

VOIDSY: Get Lady, Slick and Whipp in back, Cynthia and Marnet up front!
EASTWOOD: Way ahead of you.
MILLER: Lady can handle herself!
WRETCH: Got it...

 


Whipp gets behind Cynthia, Lady and Marnet, aiming her gun directly at the bungle. Slick ducks behind the gun type, trying to hide behind her tiny body. 
 

 
The bungle starts to move, looming over the group, only for Whipp to get a direct shot in one of its eyes. Much to your horror, the bungle barely reacts, only recoiling for a moment before shifting back into place.


 
Cynthia holds her umbrella out with a fierce expression, forming a shield for Whipp and Slick. Marnet cocks her shotgun and tenses up, your lobster type clearly waiting to see what kind of move the monster makes.


 
You tell Marnet to pass some instructions onto Illusio- they should make Whipp and Slick invisible and head to the front. Marnet gives you a nod and yells the orders to Illusio, not wasting a moment. Illusio jumps to it right away. They use their magic hands to raise up a cloth in front of Whipp and Slick, despite Whipp’s protests. In a moment, the two of them vanish, along with Whipp’s sniper rifle. With that done, they scoot up behind Cynthia, but don’t head straight to the front, saying they feel they’re better as support for the moment.


 
Lady says she’s got it covered, and tells Marnet not to shoot just yet. As the bungle rears up to move again, she heaves her harpoon back and chucks it, piercing straight into its chest. With it stuck inside, she wraps the rope around her hands and gives a mighty tug. The bungle in its entirety is yanked off the ledge down in front of the party, giving Marnet the perfect lineup for a shot.


 
The lobster type would have grinned if she could’ve. She points the shotgun directly at the bungle and-


 
The bungle flails and manages to swipe a wing at her, the umbrella taking most of the blow- but it’s enough to hit the shotgun and knock it away, leaving her unarmed. She starts cussing, getting back behind the umbrella as she waits for your next order.


 
Whipp fires off another shot, puncturing the beast in an eye on the other side, getting a loud hiss out of it this time. Marnet comments that it looks real damn mad, only punctuated by the creature lunging at the party. It doesn’t look like it can find where the shots are coming from, but that’s not stopping it from baring its teeth and gnashing. 

[Lilium Mortem]

Ask Illusio if they can keep up the invisibility if Slick and Whip move. if so suggest flanking them with the invisible TCPs. Suggest Slick should create an oil slick on the bungle if possible, under it if possible, or if all else fails between the main group and it. Marnet: Cover Lady, don't try and go for the shotgun, it's not worth the risk when you are unarmed, and Lady seems to be the one with the most damage dealing ability right now. Illusio confuse the thing by using your mage hand gloves at range. punch, pinch, slap, whatever, keep it disoriented and keep it from advancing.

[MarxzVulpez]

Okay, so it doesn't seem to be able to see us which is a start, but I'm sure it has other senses it can use so not out of the canyon yet

Let's try to cut off this thing's mobility next, let's try either having slick make an oil slick around or underneath the bungle, or failing that go for the limbs, those wings look sharp and dangerous disable them (and the mouth if possible) asap

ask if illuso can make electricity and try to zap the thing, or AS A LAST RESORT lighting the oil if that's an option, fire is dangerous and can get out of control easily, I also don't think this thing looks particularly flame resistant

Marnet only try to get the gun if you feel safe doing so, not only is getting closer to the bungle ill advised, it also puts you in the line of fire for whipp
speaking of

Whipp keep taking shots as you can, but also don't hesitate to bolt if it finds you

[Ignispark]

Agreeing with the above posts overall, both are pretty good, though in particular I think it'd be a good idea for efforts by Illusio regarding the Bungle to be focused on the eye that is not currently wounded if its open, since that one is still probably unharmed and working just fine.

[skinstealer]

You can’t decide on whether to tell Marnet to go for the gun, but it doesn’t take more than a moment before your lobster type’s going for it anyway. Whipp yells that she’s getting in the way of her shot, but Marnet doesn’t react, diving for the shotgun as the bungle lunges.



The bungle’s caught mid-jump as Lady grips the harpoon’s rope, slamming it back down onto the ground. She backs up, keeping leverage on it as best she can to prevent it from getting back up.


Marnet retreats back to the group, yelling for someone to grab its attention so she could take the shot. Illusio’s hands levitate in front of the bungle, drawing its eyes momentarily. With a clap, a bright pulse of light flashes in front of the bungle, confetti falling as the bungle is blinded momentarily.



Marnet gets in way closer than you ever want her to, risking getting close to those needle teeth and jumping up on the creature’s snout. Before the bungle opens its mouth to throw her off, she shoots.



Blood splatters against Marnet and the bungle's face as the bullet goes directly into the creature’s brain. The bungle recoils and falls forward, ceasing its flailing.



The bungle is definitely DEAD.

[victorianflorist]

Good job Marnet!

Very impressive first kill!

And props to everyone else! It was a team effort and y'all took it down very swiftly.

If anyone can make use of the materials left behind in the corpse, have at it. If not, its time to get moving along.

[seppawku]

!!!! good job marnet, everyone, lets keep moving but yall did great

[Lilium Mortem]

Marnet, that was very impressive, but It was also an unnecicary risk. You put your life in danger when you didn't have to. you have a team backing you up. Please try to be more careful, I don't want to see you hurt. That said don't waste much time celebrating you need to move. who knows what else Spit has lurking around.

[CLUTCH_]

Damn marnet more like slayer, okay oksy lets check on everybody, heal them if needed and then lest gogogo

[JadeDragon]

Ok! Definitely make sure to congratulate Marnet, but at the same time, that was...a bit of a risk! Not chastising her for protecting her family, but she doesn't *always* need to throw herself on the front lines, especially when Whipp seemed to have a handle on it.

That being said...DING DONG THE BUNGLE IS DEAD.

[skinstealer]

You congratulate Marnet, telling her that she did a good job- it’s an impressive first kill, even if she...kind of took unnecessary risks. Marnet blows you off with a wave of her hand as she climbs down from the bungle, worry setting in a bit more. You’d have to talk to her more about that one, but you had check-ins to worry about for now.

You tell Marnet to go ahead and see if there’s anything to salvage from the bungle, but not to worry about it if she couldn’t find any good shit. She gives a thumbs up and turns to the creature, leaving you to go talk to your team. 


 

VOIDSY: Well...we got that done!
EASTWOOD: No injuries or damage to our equipment either, by the look of it.
EASTWOOD: Not bad for our first group combat encounter, even if it was just an animal.
WRETCH: just an animal?!
WRETCH: that fucker was huge!! it could have eaten our cats in one bite!
MILLER: We shouldn’t downplay the dangers at hand, no. I’m glad that things went well in the end, but…
MILLER: That was a scary situation to be in, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time…
MILLER: I...knew there was going to be violence in this “game” and I was prepared for it as best as I could be, but it still felt…
MILLER: I don’t know. Even if Marnet was the one to take a life, Lady contributed, and I directed her to do so.
MILLER: I can’t help but feel like there’s some blood on my hands as well…
EASTWOOD: It’s them or us, and I don’t want it to be us.
WRETCH: yea...voidsy like, fucking dies if they lose, so…
MILLER: I know. We did what we had to do, and it wasn’t sapient to begin with, but...it’s still unsettling.
MILLER: But, on the matter of Void dying…
MILLER: You really need to be more careful with what you tell your TCPs to do! That move you pulled was incredibly risky and could have lead to Marnet getting eaten!
MILLER: I’m glad Lady was able to hold onto that thing, or we could have had a real problem!
VOIDSY: We...didn’t actually direct her to do that.
MILLER: ...what?
VOIDSY: That was all her.
MILLER: That...presents an issue of its own.
MILLER: Giving the TCPs room to do their own thing is important and I’m all for it, but if you’re going to do that, you need to make sure they know the risks at hand first.
MILLER: If Marnet is that impulsive, you need to figure out a way to curb that without taking away her free will. 
VOIDSY: We know...we’re going to talk to her about it in a second. 
VOIDSY: Trust me, we don’t want her dying any more than you do. She’s important to us.
MILLER: Good.
EASTWOOD: Yeah, probably a good idea to curb that...bloodlust. 
EASTWOOD: Though it definitely got the job done. Clown contributed too. 
EASTWOOD: Could have gone a lot worse.

Wretch doesn’t say much, and you’re not sure what to do there. Something’s clearly bothering her, but it’d have to wait until you got a moment...possibly alone.


 
You turn back to Marnet to see her wrenching teeth out of the bungle’s mouth with her claws, grimacing a bit at the dental hell on display. She seems unbothered by it, and that just makes you worry more. You ask her how she’s doing, and she admits that she’s still coming down off of a weird rush- it didn’t feel great, but she couldn’t deny that there was some kind of power going through her when she took that shot. You have no idea if TCPs have any kind of adrenaline or not, but you figure it’s probably close to that. You make sure to tell her that that kind of feeling during something like this is a completely normal survival reaction, but...she needs to be more careful with it. She really, really took a risk there, and you don’t want to lose her. She’s important to you.

Your words seem to sink in, and she nods. She didn’t want to leave the other TCPs alone either, and knows how much it’d affect them if she were to bite it. 

But, that just means she’d have to win. You reluctantly tell her that having a positive attitude towards this is probably for the best, as long as she’s more cautious. No more jumping onto bungle faces. She sighs and agrees fine, she’d do her best not to make moves like that again. It seems to be the best you’re going to get.


 
Marnet, having filled her hands with bungle teeth, heads over to Cynthia and asks if she can put them in her bag’s pockets. Cynthia seems to almost grimace, but accepts, the lobster type putting the needle-like teeth in the outer pocket for later. The guidance type seems to almost start asking what Marnet’s going to do with said teeth, but thinks better of it. Marnet just holds up a bloodied hand for a high five, to which Cynthia hesitates and weakly smacks her hand.

The high fives do not end there. Over to Whipp, who staunchly refuses, and then Slick, who doesn’t seem to have much enthusiasm either- if anything, they seem almost despondent. 

Marnet doubles back to Illusio, offering the same, horrible, blood smeared hand. Up top, she says. Illusio backs up a pace and politely declines, looking nervous in front of the blood-covered lobster. Lady, however, immediately accepts when offered, albeit without much fanfare.


>CHECK: MARNET

Marnet is a LOBSTER TYPE TCP, and is bulky and strong. Being a CREATURE TCP, her abilities are passive and cannot be used intentionally without aid of magical items. LOBSTER TYPES shed their shell armor regularly and without warning, giving them a vulnerable period while the new armor grows in. The shed armor can be used as you see fit.

Marnet seems to be cooling down from the fight, and is mainly spending time talking to her comrades. Her health is at PERFECT, and despite the fact that she’s completely splattered in blood, she’s sustained no injuries from the fight.

Marnet’s thinking about what you talked to her about earlier, and is weighing the pros and cons of risk taking in the face of mortal danger. She seems pretty split on it, and leans more towards making risky decisions if the ends justify the means...but she also worries about the little family she’s been welcomed into, and what they’d do without her. Like it or not, she’s definitely the strongest TCP physically, and without her, they’d be really struggling. Besides...there’s one TCP in particular she didn’t want to make sad- but you can’t seem to get more of a read on that from a simple check command.

Marnet's SKILLS can be checked separately via a CHECK SKILLS COMMAND. She currently has no inventory.

Marnet is also YOUR, VOIDSY'S, TCP, and is safely under your influence.
 

EASTWOOD: Looks like nobody needs healing, like I thought. We’re good to go.
MILLER: Should we move on now, or are there any last minute matters to tend to?
MILLER: Anyone have concerns or discussion to make?

[JadeDragon]

Make a mental note to ask Marnet later about why she took the tooth; it could be useful later, (but I'm also worried she might start one of those hunting trophy collections, and start doing things like this more...)

Also, I might have a clue what those feelings-about-a-TCP mean, and gosh dang that's cute~

Time to clean the blood off and continue on!

[Ignispark]

This isn't a great place to loiter and it'll be good to get back as soon as possible, so, move on.