[IC] SCAVENGER OF SORROW (Scouti Sparks Vs. The Magna Pater)

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

The terminal had just come back into business too, but that lasted about as long as expected. The workers hadn't been bad men, they merely did their jobs, got paid, and got drunk. They weren't out to hurt anybody, but then, such is the way of the world. Anything can and will happen to a flesh and blood organism, no one is exempt. Fortunately the bodies of the workers weren't left out in plain sight to flood the dreams of onlookers with such nasty thoughts as what the human body could be subjected to, least of all before merciful death. The area appeared empty. It would still be another eight hours before the higher ups realized something was amiss, that every employee had simply vanished. Eight hours of raw silence, save for the faint buzz of the dock lights and a soft lapping of waves.

Something had hitched a ride from overseas, and despite how the thought that these men had families trickled like warm oil through its mind as it personally met them one by one whilst they tried hiding amongst the maze of steely intermodal containers, pity was not evoked. What did mean something to it was that next evening it would graciously introduce itself to their homesteads. Greet each spouse with a smile, take dinner with the freshly christened bastards frozen in their soiled nighties.

It shifted noiselessly within the confines of its hidey-hole, and slept.

[Sikako J]

"Hello!? HEEEELLLLOOOO!?" Scouti called out with to avail. Kicking an empty tin can she listened to the tell-tell ping of the metal and calmed her self with a few deep breaths.

While most of her destinations were merely a coincidental stop made on her unguided journey, this one had been purposeful. She had recently dealt with a trader speaking of a massive port complex. Here surely she could find an allomantic metallurgist to replenish her stores and hopefully find a new metal. However this trader was in for an earful the next time she found him, not a soul could be found in the place. She paced forward catching her reflection in a plane of glass.

Her hair was still a strange purple from the nircosil she tried burning a month back. Her almond shaped eyes narrowed as she remembered the cramps of sickness and the strange dreams. Her banded leather outfit creaked ever so lightly before the oils caused them to slide in place. The four clawed emblem of her former mercenary company the Redwolds was clearly marked on her chest. Her gloved hand checked her throwing knives to make sure they where in place and patted the vails that contained the source of most of her powers, little metal flakes floating in distilled water. It might have seemed underwhelming, but she was after all an Allomancer able to draw powers from ingesting metal.

Taking a small vial she popped the cork top and drained the contents. It took only a few moments before she felt the heat of the metal in her stomach. A slight grin crossed her face, this was the heat of the metal reserves slowly burning as her powers clicked into place like a warm safety blanket. Picking the right metal she began a slow burn on the tin in her stomach. The effects were instant.

The cool air blowing over the water fitting her face felt as if it had dropped a few degrees as the feel of leather on her skin became more noticeable. Her sight sharpened as the container numbers from one hundred yards came clearly into view, the flicker of a strange flameless lamp caught her attention that she hadn't noticed before. The salt and stale taste of fish filled her mouth as she spat to the ground. Turning her ear she listened as the wind blew through a few of the shipping containers.

She huffed again.

'Where the hell was everyone? Even drunks and vagrants make some noise' she thought.

Something wasn't right here. Time to find out what. She hooked her thumbs into her steel chain belt and walked on, careful to ensure her new enhanced senses were prepped.

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

It couldn't have been more obvious. One of the ground level containers had a manhole sized opening in the side. The metal looked as if it had been gouged through and then peeled or pushed outwards, into a metal flower. An odor, coppery and sweetly nauseating, seemed to pulse out from the hole like warmth from a gaping wound.

All around the base of the container's exterior, coal lay strewn about in great heaping piles. Probably had been carelessly removed.
One more oddity. The coal and the crude opening glistened with a filmy thick substance, which would stick fast to Scouti if she touched it like some sort of military grade super glue.

[Sikako J]

"There..' she said to herself, finding a container with something spilled outside of it.

Sniffing in the air she was brought back to the ash mounds and factories of her childhood. She winced remembering the beatings she received when a cart was spilled. Coal was a scent she would never forget.

But this was different, a hint of copper and something sacchariferous. Turning her attention further down she noted a strange opening almost tore open. A mistwrath perhaps, they were known to travel about and displace goods. Their outter membrane was gooey and slightly corrosive, which would make sense. But why would they come to such a supposedly populated place. They enjoyed their solitude.

She called out, "What are you doing here?"

Pulling a coin from her front pouch she tossed it in front of her face. Burning steel in her stomach multiple translucent blue line jutted from her stomach to other sources of metal visible to only her eyes. Focusing on the coin she used the power of steel and 'pushesed'. The coin was struck by her weight and flung forward into the shipping container with a volicty of a bullet slicing through the air. She antipcated the clinging ricochet of metal on metal or the -plop- sound of the mistwrath. Hopfully that would be enough to chase the creature off.

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

Sparks flew as the coin bounced only once within the container. It hit something meaty then, the sound akin to a side of raw beef being slapped. Nothing happened, but the cloying scent grew heavier.

Something pale propped itself up inside the black hole of the metal flower. It was so dim, so hazy, barely there. A human face with eyes like sunken raisins, submerged in shadow. If it were truly there and not a vague, horrible figment of the imagination, it bore nothing like any living human expression. The shape swayed lazily, and any common man in his right mind would feel a cold wave of unreality wash over him like arctic water.

The air felt thick, time felt drunk. The hole seemed to have a mind of its own now, and it could almost speak. A croaking of bloated toads, the unceasing drone of cicadas. Something was flapping, something was whirring madly, but from so far away, miles away, yet getting closer. "Come in", the hole seemed to say without words. "See what's inside."

If Scouti had ever taken a hit of bad acid, she'd recognise the warped feeling. It was like the start of a bad trip, and a lesser woman might have even vomited on the spot. Evil mojo, bad juju, whatever it was called, this was it in the raw.

There was no backing out now. It was much too late for that. But then again, the atmosphere could be fought against, Scouti could absolutely resist the influence of the thing's presence. One is only susceptible to such horrors if their own fears can control them, if their imagination is as ripe as a child's.

[Sikako J]

Her head felt little off balance as something was struck in the container. Then the figure appeared...not a mistwraith. This creature was in far worse shape, repulsive yet strangely alluring. A chill etched up her spine as the eyes faded from view, a haunting quality that spoke of eons of knowledge. The smell was stronger here, like putting a honey covered boxing in her mouth and rolling it around.

Her mind wandered as she took a step. What is this thing and why is it here? Another step. Maybe it is a new mistrwaith species? A final step to close the distance to five feet. Could it speak?

It was a mixture of her childhood horror and condition training against Soothers and Rioters that halted her.

"Wait.." she spoke aloud. "What am I doing? I don't even remember my last few steps." She quickly started to burn more steel and angled her arm towards the hole.

"Come out and talk to me. I don't want any trouble."

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

Surprisingly, whatever it was took Scouti up on her offer. It tumbled out of the hole and plopped limply to the concrete. It was no wraith, but a (formerly) human corpse.
The head had been... The eyes... Ugh, and the rest of the body. Whatever he had gone through had been so terrible that his natural appearance had shifted from that of a plump workman and proud father into a concentration camp victim. It was like the man had spent the better part of his life suffering tortures in the Gulags before being slowly drained of blood as a monkey mauled him. Fingers, toes and certain other small parts were missing. His eyes weren't raisins, rather they had been reduced to pits of coagulated dark blood. His hair, once a ripe burgundy, was now entirely white. Hair turned white from fright? That honestly wasn't even physically possible.

Again something whispered not with words, but with the wings of bats fluttering in blackness-

(In dreams it is possible.)

Like a blackhead being squeezed out of a pore, the creature that Scouti had parlayed with emerged. The features of its head were virtually undistinguishable, as its slick hide was coated with a thin layer of black mold. It was grave mold, what accumulates on the skin of a damp body before it begins to rot. The monster must have slept on the freighter for quite a long time.

Its rubbery body poured out from the hole after the head had pushed through, but instead of piling where the corpse lay, the horror dipped up right before the blunt of its snout touched and reared, allowing the length of its great form to eventually slip out and gain traction on the ground to pull the rest of itself out into the open.

Its wet nostrils quivered open and closed like the nose of a pig does. The mouldy head cracked open with the sound of a watermelon being bitten into, rivulets of stringy saliva stretching taut between thick, closely gathered teeth before oozing out into ropey tendrils which sank slowly down past wrinkly jowls.

The thing's old and rancid dead-breath came out with a noiseless sigh, in a green steam that curled smokily around the corners of its mouth and wafted up like dye released underwater, coiling slowly.

From the bulbous body two arms that had been caked in at its sides with mold and blood shifted, spindly fingers tipped with long claws flexing out into the position a preying mantis maintains its own limbs. A stalking pose, lanky elbows tucked in so that the arms could be extended out quickly.

The unfairly long tail wound loops about the ground, slowly writhing, never still, perhaps ever so slowly working its way towards Scouti.

Having fully come out of its hidey-hole, the monster eased itself to its belly and looked up to the girl. It's eyelids bunched, about to flap open like the rattling shutters on a haunted house window whose sights were reserved for only the lost and the mad.

Stand still and meet it eye-to-eye with the intention of polite conversation, or move like a motherfucker? Think about it. What would Einstein do?

[Sikako J]

Despite her training. Despite the horrors she had seen of the noblemen on the Skaa people. Regardless of the eyeless Steel Inquisitors and blue skinned Koloss whose muscles were so large it split their skin, she had never seen anything like this before. Terror struck her like a punch to the gut. She sucked in air as she took a half step back. This...this was a think of nightmares. Only the dead Lord Ruler could have made such a monster.

She extinguished the burn on her tin. The sharpness of the glistening skin dimmed a little, the smell of the moldy skin lightened, terrible sound of the sucking slime lowered. Her mind screamed!

RUN YOU FOOL!

Flaring steel she prayed it would be enough to escape. Focusing on the four thin lines of her daggers she willed them to launch forward from their break away scabbards and plunge into the oozing mass. She had no vital targets to aim for, only to try and cause it a distraction as she tried to escape. At the same time she focused on the thick blue line of the container itself and pushed. Unlike the daggers, the container weight much more than she did. Thus when its weight was pushed against, it was she that was thrown backwards like a rag doll fired from a cannon.

Hoping this was enough to escape its reach her left hand went for a front pouch as her right locked onto her chain belt.

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

She managed to wound the monster all right. Two daggers in the lower back, but the other two were knocked aside with a sweep of its left wing. The attack would have had more effect on a raging bear, and with enough steam bears have been known to charge through bullets. If she could get at its brain or heart though, or a major artery...

But those considerations were a luxury afforded to those with time to think.

The Magna Pater's tail moved then, and it moved like an honest whip. The tip coiled about one of the daggers in its back as the rest of the limb bowed out in Scouti's direction, like one of those cartoon trees that launch characters into the sky when a rope is cut. Instead of Elmer Fudd, it was a piece of bladed steel flung with with such momentous speed that should it have struck a man in the chest, it'd be liable to crack right through the sternum and literally take him off of his feet.

It was a blur shooting haphazardly for Scouti's legs. Not a deadly throw, but it could cripple her. Meanwhile, the horror had moved. It slipped out of sight behind a stack of nearby containers, as silent and quick as the supposed spirits they say you can see out of the corner of your eye.

There was something worse than seeing the monster after all. Not seeing it.

[Sikako J]

Two of the four attacks struck, however the strange wing like apparatus that didn't seem to quite belong on the horror's body. It didn't reach out to take her and absorb her into its gooey flowing mass like a mistwraith would. Instead a flash of light slipped from is tail as flung like a trebuchet. A thin line of blue rocketed towards her, it had to be one of her daggers. This was not good.

She instinctually burned iron and pulled against a container to her left jutting in the air to the side. But it wasn't quick enough, as the flat of the blade cracked against her knee in a shower of pain. Falling to the ground, she rolled trying to absorb the impact as best she could.

In a hurry she began to burn Petwer, her skin and muscles toughening a little as it went to work on the injured leg. She had heard stories of a Pewter-arm able to run on a broken leg for an hour before he ran out of his metal and collapsed in pain. With any luck it wasn't a break and this injury should have lasting effect for too long.

She looked up for the creature.

"Rust and ruin!" she had lost him in the frantic escape and attack.

With the metal fueling a rapid recovery and energizing her muscles she withdrew a coin from her pocket and dropped it to the ground. With a quick steel push she launched herself upward to land on a container not too far away. Landing with as much grace as she could muster with the injured leg her eyes looked about.

Deciding that not knowing where this being was indeed worrisome. Reaching for her small bronze reserves and burned. She didn't much care for the way she felt using this ability. Most bronze users, or seekers, were a strange lot always overly suspicions. The effect made her head feel fuzzy as what she could only describe as 'pulses' began to appear to her ears. It was made or sensing allomantic powers however, she had found in her travels that beings with abilities often released similar pulses as well.

Pulling the large metal ball out of her back pocket she tossed it to the air and pushed it upwards with steel a good distance. Lightened up she hoped to be bale to react a little quicker.

[Doc Doctor]

@Sikako J

A split second, a fraction of a moment. That maniac moment where one realises that, yes, this is a life or death situation. A climber's foot slips over a two-hundred foot precipice. A mother sees her toddler waddle in front of a semi. The survival instinct comes naturally, without thought as the body acts before the mind.

The monster knew how to take advantage of humans.

Right as Scouti landed atop the container, something clattered on the ground to her left. No doubt that if look she did, it'd be only for that briefest of periods before she caught wind of the trap. It had chucked the second dagger high overhead so that its landing would provide a distraction. The tail spat up through the darkness on Scouti's right, seeking to slap around her neck during that instinctual buzz of unthinking adrenaline like a Punjab lasso, a hangman's noose that would yank her viciously from her perch and over the side where the monster had darted, having already snaked over to where she had landed with its lethal, viperous speed. She'd have at best six seconds before she fell unconscious from lack of oxygen to the brain, should it have seized her.

Most humans watch too many motion pictures. They often find themselves under the impression that once a horror movie villain sneaks out of sight, there is time to catch the old breath as suspense builds up for the next scene.

This was no damn movie. There'd be no screaming if it got its clammy claws on her. Her voicebox would rupture at the first attempt of trying to release an expression of the horrors it desired to inflict upon her. Even in death there was no escape.

If she were quick on the draw with her seeking power, Scouti's chances of avoiding the sneak attack would be much better, but if she were taking a breather, giving pause, trying to gain her bearings before starting off again...