Little Finger

[animusmods]

Characters: characters participating in the Little Finger game
Setting: a riverbank at night in a dream
Format: any
Summary: It's time to search
Warnings: general creepiness and horror warnings

ROUND ONE (complete): mingle | search
ROUND TWO: mingle | search


Round One [COMPLETE]
NO SUPERHUMAN POWERS; SEARCH THE GRASS, BUSHES, TREES, OR THE RIVER ITSELF
This appears much like the story you may remember reading--an old woman crouches next to a gate, searching through thick, wet riverbank grass. Thick fog coats the area behind the gate, across the river, and perhaps twenty feet in either direction from where you stand. Going into this fog, you feel, would be extremely dangerous--possibly suicidal. Eventually the woman stands up. She is missing all the fingers on her left hand and the little finger on her right hand.

"Please, could you help me find my fingers? I'm missing six of them."

It doesn't look like you have a choice.

Round Two [FOUR FINGERS REMAIN]
SUPERHUMAN POWERS ACTIVE; SEARCH ALL PREVIOUS AREAS, BRIDGE, LAWN
This appears much like the story you may remember reading--an old woman crouches next to a gate, searching through thick, wet riverbank grass. Wait, this has happened before--welcome to round two. You didn't find anything last time, and that's why you're here now. The fog remains, but it's drawn back a bit--travelling to the bridge, a simple wooden structure, is now possible without entering the fog, and the gate opens into the lawn of a house. The house itself is yet covered in fog, but there's a doghouse and the lawn itself to search through. Going into the fog still feels impossibly dangerous.

Eventually, the woman stands up. She is missing all the fingers on her left hand.

"Please, could you help me find my fingers? I'm missing five of them."

It doesn't look like you have a choice. All wounds remain from the previous round. Anyone killed last round returns, but they have a scar that reflects their manner of death.

Round Three
has not yet started

Round Four
has not yet started

Round Five
has not yet started

Round Six
has not yet started

Comments

[culbutiri]

[Urgh, well it looked like if there was to be any chance of escaping this place it would be through joining in this stupid search. Nesir wandered around the lawn scuffing her toes through the grass looking for missing body parts. She saw the old lady and went up to her.] You do be very careless you know. All those people did be risking their lives to be finding your fingers, and now you do be losing them again.

[She looked at her own damaged hand, fingers couldn't be put back on, not even with magic, not if they'd been lost a while. So this dream was just stupid.]

[animusnpcs]

[The grass is thick enough it would be difficult to find anything in it without bending over and searching that way.]

Oh, these things happen, dear. [The woman doesn't seem to mind.]

[culbutiri]

[Which is probably why she hasn't found anything but more grass yet.] Well you should be being more careful. [She scuffed at the grass some more before finally hissing in defeat and bending down to look. This was stupid, it would take far too long to search the entire lawn.] Can you no be giving me a clue?

[animusnpcs]

I'm afraid I don't know where I lost them.

[It is going to take some time to search through all of this grass. There are occasional piles of dirt and various lost objects, like old baseballs.]

[culbutiri]

And more observant, did no one ever be teaching you to be paying attention to your surroundings. [She searches a bit more, picking up a baseball and looking at it.] It do be seeming you do no be the only person losing things. [And the piles of dirt, she frowns at them and looks around, looking for any holes that the dirt might have come from.]

[animusnpcs]

[There are a few holes scattered about, but they're empty. Nesir will begin to find bones as she looks, mostly animal but a few human.]

[culbutiri]

[She doesn't seem worried about the bones, tossing them to one side be they human or animal. She goes to one of the holes and begins to dig a little deeper with her hands.]

[animusnpcs]

[There's nothing but dirt in the empty holes, or the occasional half-buried bone.]

[culbutiri]

[After digging in a couple of them she gives up with that idea and goes back to a pile of dirt, searching through that instead.]

[animusnpcs]

[As she searches, a finger dislodges itself.

An owl--or it looks like an owl, from how quickly it flashes by--perched on a tree in the yard snatches it up and returns to its home inside the tree.]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir grinned triumphantly, a smile that disappeared a moment later.] Oi! That do be mine you stupid bird. [She scrambled up and ran into the yard, which tree was it. She kicks a few listening for the sound of wings]

[animusnpcs]

[Luckily there's only one tree in the yard itself.]

hfgkghjlf oops.

[culbutiri]

[She begins to climb it, she's a pretty decent climber and does so quietly, planning to take the owl by surprise.]

[animusnpcs]

[There's no owl visible, but there is a large hole fairly high up in the tree. It should be reachable by a good climber.]

[culbutiri]

[She continues upwards, trees aren't really her strongest point since she grew up in a city but she still get up there and reaches the hole.]

[animusnpcs]

[The owl--or something with a beak, though there are teeth in there--bites off a few fingers.]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir screams in pain, her feet slip as she snatches the now fingerless hand- it was her right, the one already damaged, from the hole.

She clung onto a branch with her left hand, kicking her legs, trying to find a foot hold as blood pours from her other hand. Everything was pain and Nesir plunged into the emptiness to escape it, so she could think.]

[animusnpcs]

[Nothing leaves the hole, at least; as long as she doesn't fall out of the tree in her panic she should be alright, as there's a branch not too far beneath the hole.]

[culbutiri]

[Safe in the emptiness there was no panic and she lowered herself down until she got to the branch. She crawled over to the point nearest the tree trunk and sat leaning on it, her legs wrapped round the branch. She bunched up her shirt to attempt to stem the bleeding, pressing down hard, still in the emptiness where pain was muffled.

If she's not disturbed she will just stay here until the rounds over. She is done with this stupid finger biting owl and the stupid lady who couldn't keep track of her fingers.]

[friendlyfiend]

[As it turns out, she doesn't quite go undisturbed.

It takes him a good while to locate her, but she's eventually joined in the treetop by a jackal-headed creature with an apologetic expression. All that searching and the person he had been looking for was right below where he had started. How callous had that looked, seizing the prize and then flying off while she huddled and bled? Moving slowly in an effort not to startle her into falling, he maneuvers into the girl's field of vision and tries to attract her attention.]

...Hello?

[culbutiri]

[She's not huddling she's just... strategically retreated and is waiting until she's losing less blood.

Or something. She looks warily at the creature as it approaches, thinking that at least if she is killed she will come back fingers intact.]

What do you be wanting?

[friendlyfiend]

Do you know if anyone here has healing? Magic is working again now, and I could take you to them.

[Killing is about the farthest thing from his mind right now... and even if he knew what she was thinking, he doesn't quite share her faith in the restorative powers of these false deaths. Ruana doesn't seem the sort to leave her victims with such an easy out.]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir shook her head] I do no be knowing anyone here.

[It was true, out of all the sort of friends, allies and even people she couldn't stand that she had met in the tower, none of them were in this living dream.]

[friendlyfiend]

..And my own powers lie elsewhere, sorry to say.

[Well, so much for that idea.]

I can help you down from there, at least.

[culbutiri]

[Nesir hated owing people anything, she hated being in their debt. But after a moment she nodded, there was no way she could get down the tree without help.] That would be being kind of you. Thank you.