Branch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchifer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
longestnight2023-08-23 03:59 pm
branchifer) wrote in longestnight2023-08-23 03:59 pm
[audio] The traps will continue until (his) morale improves
[After a while, there's no need for anyone to keep too much of a close eye on Branch, despite the fact he was possibly one of the closest to death by the time they got to the Pole. By the time everyone else is feeling well enough to leave the Infirmary (albeit maybe with a limp in the case of some of them) he's still out but at least finally firmly stable. Breathing easily and far less pale. It's just that the sleep caused by the myth healing has him firmly knocked out for far longer than everyone else as all that extensive poison damage heals up.]
[Jack at least keeps occasionally checking in on him. He'd placed him in a little doll bed and placed that in a little dollhouse. The house is meant to make it so the troll won't just sleepily stumble out and fall right off the table or something before he's fully awake.]
[The problem is he hasn't noticed that one of the Elves noticed him initially tucking Branch away. And said Elf also keeps watching him go in and open up a little doll house. Bingle knows better, he knows he's not allowed in the Infirmary unless he wants to be helpful and has been given specific Infirmary-related instructions....but he also thinks that toy looks so adorable. And!!! Jack keeps playing with it and Jack liking the toy makes it seem even cooler!!! So after one of the times Jack closes up the little dollhouse again, and leaves the Infirmary Bingle jingles his way happily into the Infirmary after he's out of sight to go play with the toy...]
[A short time later, there is a whole lot of screaming. Terrified, Bingle drops what was in his hand, and runs out. Then what Bingle thought was a toy also runs out of the Infirmary and the rest...]
[The rest is the kind of mess that happens when a bunch of upsetting events running consecutively are filtered through a filter of high octane paranoia. Branch doesn't waste time after escaping his would-be murderer. Limping out of the room, he makes his way onto a hustling bustling floor filled with furry artisans. Looking around in awe at the strangeness of his surroundings is how he gets run over by some kind of toy car. Great. Wonderful. The injury jangles his leg even worse and causes it to break open the partially-healed snake bite gouge. But that's not about to slow him down.]
[Some stolen ribbon is tied over the bandage to put more pressure on the injury. (They must have bandaged it because they wanted him to live long enough to clear the poison.) His hair is quietly washed in the as-of-yet unused paintbrush water of a yeti setting up a table to paint toys. Then he smears green and red paint on his body and more bits and bobbles, pieces of ribbon and tinsel and pine are used as camouflage all over his body. The place is littered with garlands and scraps of ribbon and tinsel. It genuinely lets him blend. All he has to do is stop moving and then he looks like all the rest of the detritus and garland on the tables and floors.]
[He blends enough that he manages to limp to one of the windows and see what's waiting for him outside without being seen. The view is devastating and makes him realize he has to change his tack.]
[He figures out the comm devices the hairy guys are making are important by silently watching a yeti test one out, including by using some kind of... listening devices with it? Ones that go in the ears? When the yeti's back is turned, both the larger watch device and the two ear-things are stolen, as is the box and instructions for the ear things. And Branch spends the better part of an hour figuring out what it's all for, how to sync the devices, how to use the mic on the one ear bud, and how the menus are navigated - including how to navigate them by tapping the earbud certain ways without touching the comm watch.]
[Then he looks out on what is to become a battlefield, a place to lay waste to his enemies, and starts to get to work. It takes him the better part of a few hours to prepare, the large space of time between anyone possibly thinking to check on him in the Infirmary. He has to use his hair to do most of the traveling because of the shape his leg is in but he pushes his way through it.]
[Then the first casualties start rolling in. The Elves and the yetis, the most numerous of the Pole's residents and most prone to roaming around, are disproportionately affected. The first trap is tripped by an Elf. Somehow the Elf is successfully netted to the ground in a weighted net made of volleyball netting. A yeti trips a trap that causes a cascade of marbles that causes a whole group of yetis to slip and fall. A snare trap somehow whips someone upside down. Super soakers full of lemon juice are activated by a tripwire to squirt the juice in someone's face as they walk by.]
[The traps are all harmful but not permanently damaging. There are no traps that might make people fall over railings or down stairs. Nothing will permanently scald anyone and even if things cause pain and irritation they don't cause permanent damage. And it's possible to avoid tripping traps, certainly. After all, most of the traps are in the busiest areas of the Pole, and not quieter ones prone to relaxation. There's no point in hunting the hunters if you do it in places where they don't heavily congregate.]
[But for those in the more heavily trap-set areas: visible chaos erupts. The Elves and the yetis are clearly panicking. Then, in explanation, a voice comes over the new comms, in audio only, spoken over the mic of a single Samsung earbud. A few of them might recognize said voice from their time in the Multi-plex or before.]
Yeah, hi, all those traps going off around you? Those are mine and I work fast. I guaran-flipping-tee you there are a whole lot more of them than you think. Pick a random number, then quadruple it, because that's what I did when deciding how many to set. And I'll keep setting more the longer my demands go unmet.
Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "well, I can avoid all the traps." Maybe true for you, but your ugly, pointy-headed little children and the big hairy guys sure seem to be running into them. And wow, they are really freaking out right now.
So we're going to do this my way. If you want it to stop anytime soon, you'll do exactly what I say, when I say it. If you don't do what I say, I will make it worse.
[Branch is about to limp around and be a problem.]
[Yippee-Ki-Yay.]
[ooc: Threadhopping is encouraged. The main negotiations will happen with Miguel playing hostage negotiator, but anyone can talk to Branch. He can't see anything because it's all audio but he'll definitely gloat if he hears someone get trapped while on the comms with him, completely endearing himself to them instantly, I'm sure. All the traps will be inconvenient, annoying, and maybe slightly painful but not cause any genuine risk to life and limb - yet.]
[Jack at least keeps occasionally checking in on him. He'd placed him in a little doll bed and placed that in a little dollhouse. The house is meant to make it so the troll won't just sleepily stumble out and fall right off the table or something before he's fully awake.]
[The problem is he hasn't noticed that one of the Elves noticed him initially tucking Branch away. And said Elf also keeps watching him go in and open up a little doll house. Bingle knows better, he knows he's not allowed in the Infirmary unless he wants to be helpful and has been given specific Infirmary-related instructions....but he also thinks that toy looks so adorable. And!!! Jack keeps playing with it and Jack liking the toy makes it seem even cooler!!! So after one of the times Jack closes up the little dollhouse again, and leaves the Infirmary Bingle jingles his way happily into the Infirmary after he's out of sight to go play with the toy...]
[A short time later, there is a whole lot of screaming. Terrified, Bingle drops what was in his hand, and runs out. Then what Bingle thought was a toy also runs out of the Infirmary and the rest...]
[The rest is the kind of mess that happens when a bunch of upsetting events running consecutively are filtered through a filter of high octane paranoia. Branch doesn't waste time after escaping his would-be murderer. Limping out of the room, he makes his way onto a hustling bustling floor filled with furry artisans. Looking around in awe at the strangeness of his surroundings is how he gets run over by some kind of toy car. Great. Wonderful. The injury jangles his leg even worse and causes it to break open the partially-healed snake bite gouge. But that's not about to slow him down.]
[Some stolen ribbon is tied over the bandage to put more pressure on the injury. (They must have bandaged it because they wanted him to live long enough to clear the poison.) His hair is quietly washed in the as-of-yet unused paintbrush water of a yeti setting up a table to paint toys. Then he smears green and red paint on his body and more bits and bobbles, pieces of ribbon and tinsel and pine are used as camouflage all over his body. The place is littered with garlands and scraps of ribbon and tinsel. It genuinely lets him blend. All he has to do is stop moving and then he looks like all the rest of the detritus and garland on the tables and floors.]
[He blends enough that he manages to limp to one of the windows and see what's waiting for him outside without being seen. The view is devastating and makes him realize he has to change his tack.]
[He figures out the comm devices the hairy guys are making are important by silently watching a yeti test one out, including by using some kind of... listening devices with it? Ones that go in the ears? When the yeti's back is turned, both the larger watch device and the two ear-things are stolen, as is the box and instructions for the ear things. And Branch spends the better part of an hour figuring out what it's all for, how to sync the devices, how to use the mic on the one ear bud, and how the menus are navigated - including how to navigate them by tapping the earbud certain ways without touching the comm watch.]
[Then he looks out on what is to become a battlefield, a place to lay waste to his enemies, and starts to get to work. It takes him the better part of a few hours to prepare, the large space of time between anyone possibly thinking to check on him in the Infirmary. He has to use his hair to do most of the traveling because of the shape his leg is in but he pushes his way through it.]
[Then the first casualties start rolling in. The Elves and the yetis, the most numerous of the Pole's residents and most prone to roaming around, are disproportionately affected. The first trap is tripped by an Elf. Somehow the Elf is successfully netted to the ground in a weighted net made of volleyball netting. A yeti trips a trap that causes a cascade of marbles that causes a whole group of yetis to slip and fall. A snare trap somehow whips someone upside down. Super soakers full of lemon juice are activated by a tripwire to squirt the juice in someone's face as they walk by.]
[The traps are all harmful but not permanently damaging. There are no traps that might make people fall over railings or down stairs. Nothing will permanently scald anyone and even if things cause pain and irritation they don't cause permanent damage. And it's possible to avoid tripping traps, certainly. After all, most of the traps are in the busiest areas of the Pole, and not quieter ones prone to relaxation. There's no point in hunting the hunters if you do it in places where they don't heavily congregate.]
[But for those in the more heavily trap-set areas: visible chaos erupts. The Elves and the yetis are clearly panicking. Then, in explanation, a voice comes over the new comms, in audio only, spoken over the mic of a single Samsung earbud. A few of them might recognize said voice from their time in the Multi-plex or before.]
Yeah, hi, all those traps going off around you? Those are mine and I work fast. I guaran-flipping-tee you there are a whole lot more of them than you think. Pick a random number, then quadruple it, because that's what I did when deciding how many to set. And I'll keep setting more the longer my demands go unmet.
Now I'm sure some of you are thinking "well, I can avoid all the traps." Maybe true for you, but your ugly, pointy-headed little children and the big hairy guys sure seem to be running into them. And wow, they are really freaking out right now.
So we're going to do this my way. If you want it to stop anytime soon, you'll do exactly what I say, when I say it. If you don't do what I say, I will make it worse.
[Branch is about to limp around and be a problem.]
[Yippee-Ki-Yay.]
[ooc: Threadhopping is encouraged. The main negotiations will happen with Miguel playing hostage negotiator, but anyone can talk to Branch. He can't see anything because it's all audio but he'll definitely gloat if he hears someone get trapped while on the comms with him, completely endearing himself to them instantly, I'm sure. All the traps will be inconvenient, annoying, and maybe slightly painful but not cause any genuine risk to life and limb - yet.]
[audio] closed to branch
This is the person they taught the spell speaking. They want me to meet you to drop off supplies, but I want out of here too.
They aren't giving you one of the portals yet, I think they plan on either stalling or going to make you negotiate more. But I think I know where to get one.
We get out together and then split ways. If they try to find us after, it'll split up their resources to track us both.
[Normal thoughts for a 14-year-old to have about the situation.]
[audio]
[He's out of the bolthole away from his temporary captive when he gets the message. From someone that sounds very young. So, one of the big people maybe, but a child? Maybe a young teen?]
[It feels weirdly specific. Unrehearsed.]
Kid, why do you want to leave so bad? I've got my reasons but those reasons involve the fact that being 6 inches tall puts you into an entirely different class of person in the eyes of some big people.
Are you a human? Because if you are you're probably not in danger like I am.
no subject
I don't want to be here and I haven't been given the option to leave. I'm not waiting any longer. I don't know these people and I don't want to fight for them.
[Especially not for free.]
I can take care of myself. No one's going to be in charge of me except for me.
[Boba refuses to trade one prison for another.]
no subject
[He missed the welcome spiel.]
[The idea of a child being made to fight something offends every one of his trollish sensibilities. Maybe he'd been the village hermit, maybe he'd been cranky and mean, but even his times telling everyone they were being stupid and careless and going to get eaten had been laced in some genuine concern.]
[Attracting Bergens to the village certainly risked the lives of the trollings along with everyone else, and a lack of super loud singing might have been less fun, but they were easier to keep happy when they weren't dead.]
[His people wouldn't make a child fight something in a million billion years. Trollings were hugged and taught and sang to and told stories and played with. Even during the bad years, they had been given extra love in the face of all that horror.]
[Every day, when she'd been alive, his grandma had made him a snack and done a new puzzle with him, using it as an opportunity for lots of gentle affection, giving him attention and routine to sooth his frequent anxiety. A routine where something made sense and fit together perfectly.]
Is it the people that attacked us? Are they going to make you fight them?
no subject
I don't know, and I don't intend on sticking around to find out. They said we could leave if we wanted to but no one has let us go yet.
[He's a bounty hunter. He doesn't fight wars-- he gets a job done and gets paid.]
no subject
[Is he a kidnapper, is that what he is now?! Like some terrifying forest monster? Or would he be liberating a kid from kidnappers? If you liberate a kid from kidnappers does that make the kidnapping a dude you did cancel out?]
[Oh, he sure hopes so because even if this is a trap he can't not try to rescue a kid being forced to fight things. He's really hoping instead of being doubly bad it cancels out.]
These people are sick.
[He drags his hand down his face.]
Okay, look, keep this quiet for a little bit but apparently one of the big people - the adult ones - can shrink? It's a surprise to him, too.
I...sort of maybe took him hostage. I'm not going to hurt the guy but I plan to use that as more leverage. I've also got some other things brewing that I could use help on.
Provided that doesn't change your mind, I'm willing to take you with me but the only thing I ask is that you at least consider sticking with me after we get out.
I don't like the idea of a kid just wandering around alone out there, without even a second brain to pick for ideas if things go wrong. Plus, if you wanted to get rid of me, you could literally flick me away. It's not like I could stop you.
[As far as adults hovering around him would go, it's a situation where Boba would absolutely have all the power. He wouldn't even have to kill him to get rid of him for good. All he'd have to do is yeet him too far for his tiny legs to catch up.]
no subject
[Boba doesn't think about how his last hostage situation went. He doesn't.]
I'll think about sticking together.
And I...
[This is the first time his voice holds any emotion or hesitation.]
I wouldn't do that. [He'd just ditch the guy. He's not going to hurt him for no reason.]
What do you need help with? [Emotional moment over, back to business.]
no subject
[But over not being willing to hurt him...good kid. Branch is a lot more sure he's telling the truth instead of the adults.]
[He's in a good zone, maybe. The Elves are too young so of course they'd just do what they were told was okay. Kids that young just follow directions and don't know better. And adults can rationalize their cruelty.]
[He's possibly old enough to not just obey but too young to rationalize something awful as being okay. Actual empathy, how refreshing.]
[It's all the more reason to get that kind of innocence away from people who'd make him fight.]
I'm going to sabotage the little meet up they recruited you for.
After that, it's going to get pretty chaotic. In between talking to them, I'm going to give you directions on how to make traps out of some of the things I've found, if you're okay with that. And how to re-set ones that already got sprung.
Try to be sneaky. The idea is to keep them off balance by the fact it'll seem like I'm everywhere at once. Then we can work on our exit.
[His voice is purposeful but gentle. Not too gentle, though. He talks to him like someone might talk kindly to a reasonable adult that just might not know something.]
[(He remembers how much he hated being talked down to or told things he thought weren't true. Like his foster parents telling him the Bergens would never find them.)]
The traps need to stay how I designed them, okay? I made it so nobody would actually get hurt. Those little kids with the pointy hats are innocent so I don't want to do more than spook them.
no subject
[It's said with complete confidence and a likely concerning lack of emotion. It's like a switch has been flipped.
Boba's not sure if he agrees that no one should get hurt, but it's not important enough to argue about. Keeping an ally is the priority. (Aurra wouldn't care. Aurra would have already killed someone. Aurra wouldn't take him with her unless she had no choice.)
Worst comes to worst, he's already stolen a few knives from the workshop. He can defend himself he has to.]
What are you doing with the hostage?
[Having two would be better, but Boba doesn't think Branch would be willing to do that. He sounds uncomfortable with just the one.]
no subject
[Branch might be too soft to cause real harm to these people, but that means he cares enough to get a kid that seems in trouble out with him.]
[And the only reason he's not being fiercer here is the uncertainty of who exactly was responsible and who exactly knew. And because of the child-like elves running around. There is ferocity directed at other people that may wind up happening in defense of Boba someday - especially when Branch discovers he can grow.]
[Branch frowns on the other end of the comms at the lack of emotion in his voice. He doesn't like that. He knows what it means to shut down like that. He especially knows what it means to do it so young.]
[A little seedling of concern has been planted. It will keep growing.]
Mostly just spooking them, but even if I tell the truth, that I don't plan to hurt the guy, they won't be sure of that. They'll assume the worst and I can use that.
[There's a zone of uncertainty to take advantage of.]
What's your name, by the way? I'm Branch.
no subject
I'm Lucky.
[It's ironic since Boba's been anything but. He's had to claw for every scrap of fortune he's had in the last three years. Getting out of Republic prison and showing up here is the first good thing to happen in... a long time. Longer than he wants to think about.
"Watch out for things that go too well" his father's voice says. At least this time he knew to expect that something would go wrong. He'll never get caught off guard again.]
Where should I go first?