Logs:Fishing Mini-Game

Fishing Mini-Game
Dramatis Personae Amo, Jax
In Absentia Blink	2024-09-24 "NAH fuck tha-"
Location <MOJ> Mojo World
This place, thank goodness, is not the strange and crushing alien vastness of the Portal Nexus. It's an entirely different strange and crushing alien vastness, though -- who's to say if it's an improvement. The ground here seems slightly more familiarly ground-like even if it is perpetually a bit of a slimy bog and the landscape is dotted with Things that do feel a bit more familiarly like they might be buildings, large and vagely stony where they rise at intervals from the mucus -- the fact that they sporadically shift and grind and crunch doesn't offer much to be sanguine about when it comes to their purpose, though, and Jax has stayed faaar away from the ominous structures. Probably wise even if the stone itself isn't hostile, because the Mojo denizens who frequent the structures might well be. The many soft-furred sharpteethed rolypoly creatures that seem to be harvesting something unpleasantly sticky and stinking out here in the muck fields, though, have been far from hostile, even if it has taken several expeditions to properly explain their purpose. Two of the smaller of the creatures (these ones, politely condensing themselves down into compact balls, each still loom a good half-foot over Jax) have been designated some sort of ambassadors by virtue of best managing between them to figure out some gestural system that has more or less worked for rudimentary communication between the earthlings and their fieldworkers. More or less. As they start to head back to the gateway out Jax is discreetly palming the leaf wrapped package of some rank and steaming sludge their hosts had so graciously offered as snack and which he had apparently already politely eaten. "Okay," he's very much grimacing as he double checks with Amo, but maybe this is as much the cumulative effect of being out here A While as it is communication woes, "either one of their masters there knows lots and lots about spaceships or is gonna eat all our heads. I'm really hoping it was the first one?" He's squinting out across the field towards one of the taller structures in the distance and then just shaking his head. "We should send Blink or someone out with the gas we done promise." Amo hops on one leg to re-roll up the falling edge of their uniform pants to keep them out of the bog, and picks back up her step alongside Jax. Her gaze tracks the leaf wrapped package and her eyebrow ticks up in a mild amusement, although her nose wrinkles at the sludginess of it. She shrugs a shoulder in a way that moves the rest of her body along with it, "Nah I got the vibe of the first one. I mean- what else could-" She mimics a gesture of a vertical palm and some flicks of their fingers to mime an explosion, "-mean? Unless that's our heads gettin' ripped of their spines and bloods splurting all over." Her eyes narrow in a thoughtful contemplation. "Nah I think they want outta here as much as us--I got a good feeling off of them. I think they woulda tried something last time we chatted anyways." Her hands raise to relax behind her head, the still healing left arm moving a little gingerly. She stretches her neck to the side and her body tilts a little with it, perhaps subconsciously matching the tilt of the stones in the distance, "I could go with Blink. Familiar face n' all- and if they try to chomp on our heads they gonna need some dental work." Jax is nodding along with Amo's miming, and a very cartoonish confetti-burst of -- maybe it is glitter, maybe it is blood -- sprays fireworks-like out of both their heads as he does. "See, yeah, I thought that was the --" He's miming explosion now, too, "-- of knowledge but it coulda been the --" pow, again, "of our brains going splat everywhere." He doesn't seem all that concerned about it, to be fair, a lightly amused cadence to his voice even through his growing tired strain. "You right, though, they seem solid. Think they'd appreciate the familiar face you got their wiggles down, I think Blink might have a hard time decoding --" He's slowing for a moment, though this doesn't seem because of his tendency towards no-sun-sickness. He's looking across the field -- at first the strange ripple in the muck doesn't look like much, just one more weird Glorp among a lot of weird glorp. This particular weird glorp is wriggling steadily and purposefully snakelike towards them, though. His brow furrows deep, and he edges just a little closer to Amo, picking up the pace when he starts to head toward their gate again. "... not sure I get a good feeling off that." Amo huffs out an amused sort of noise at the confetti-glitter-blood bursts. “I might got the wiggles down but they gave you this great…” She’s slowing, sort of delayed after Jax has, “…Gift.” Her eyes narrow, and as he edges closer to her she’s instinctively reaching out towards him and placing her hand on one of his shoulders--gingerly at first in preparation for heat. She wordlessly picks up the pace in tandem with him. Rock scatters in a wave down her arms, building up heavy around her shoulders first before shifting in downwards spirals focusing around her hands. It's when a half dozen tendrils begin to slowly emerge from the muck, sharp spines decorating each one, and begin piercing into the ground to pull the pursuing mass towards them in a quicker, more deliberate manner, that Amo manages to find her voice, “NAH fuck tha-” Her words are swallowed in her strangled gasp of surprise as a tendril shoots out of the muck and first attempts to pierce through the soft of her stomach--crashing instead against her armor. The armor suddenly activates across Jax as well, rock rippling at the ready from the point centered on the hand on his shoulder--which is then quickly yanked away when another tendril coils around her ankle and snaps her leg out from under her, sending her splashing into the muck. She scrambles for purchase as it begins to drag her closer towards the rapidly approaching mass. Jax's eye opens wide when the tendrils emerge. The reflexive lift of his hand comes only with a faint shimmer that resolves only very brief and halfhearted into the shield he is aiming for -- it severs one of the tendrils to lop off and fall back into the muck with a plop and then a squelch as it is swallowed. Unfortunately it very much leaves the rest of the spiny arms free to their attack. Jax's breath draws in sharp and dismayed as one of them swings for him, only to ease back out in a shuddery relief when it THUDS hard against a sudden rippling coating of armor. The armor running down his arm has now grown a cheerful sparkling heart emoji glittering on its thick shoulder scales, rapidly followed by a: 🙏. "You're a lifesaver," he's telling Amo, teeth gritted against another lashing tendril as he reaches down to clasp her hand in his uncomfortably hot one and help her scramble back up. With his other hand he chucks the lump of steaming fetid sludge towards the approaching center mass instead -- maybe someone will appreciate the snack, after all. Amo grips his hand--armor blossoming around their joined palms to lock in the grip and protect against the heat. With his help and a final kick she manages to scramble back to her feet, breathing heavily. The armor locking their hands together fades back--easily with Jax's high temperature. "That should be my line." She wheezes out in thanks. She's bracing against another piercing tendril, bringing her arms up to lock together in a rocky shield. Her eyes are wide and wild, attempting to inch back towards the gateway-- when her gaze tracks to the steaming sludge Jax tossed--and the slithering monster beelining towards it. "OH!" She's shouting in realization, and instantly she launches herself towards the bait--not hesitating to complete the Alley-oop Jax set up. She interlocks her hands and raises them high above her head, armor shifting and building to amass around her hands like a massive hammer, and swings her arms down like a wrecking ball at the moment the central mass begins to emerge to take a bite of the Bait Jax had set up. The 🙏 swiftly morphs into a 👅 as the mass swallows down the sludge, and then just as rapid: 🤢. Did the creature actually find the snack revolting, who knows; it's frozen briefly as the package disappears into its maw and this brief hesitation is long enough for Amo's armored sledgehammer thwack to hit solidly home. The tentacles are thrashing, now, but it's undirected, aimless, a pained writhe that is kicking up bits of muck where they flail as the central maw starts to withdraw. Jax grabs at Amo's hand, booking it now towards their gateway (the emoji on his shoulder now reads: 😵‍💫) It's only as thrashing recedes into the distance and the gateway back to the main Portal Hub of Mojo World is within spitting distance that he summons up a crooked grin. "-- Oh, man, you think that's what the big guy was tryna warn us about? I definitely thought those wiggles was saying his boss was a real monster." Amo doesn't hesitate to instantly go with Jax, morphing her armor out of Hammer Shape to grip his hand and slotting into step beside him. She grits her teeth, forcing sharp breaths through her teeth to progressively slow each intake of breath. Her grimace warps into a grin though, and she can't stop the laugh of disbelief that harshly scrapes against her throat. She finally lets go of his hand to mimic the previous exploding gesture with her fingers--now not so dissimilar to the stabbing motion of the tendrils. Her eyes widen in realization, and she looks up suddenly to meet Jax's. "AH shit!" She slaps her face with the rock covered palm of her hand--nearly giving herself a bloody nose if not for the armor that bursts across the bridge of it. Her laughter turns a little delirious, and she shakes her head, "That's fucking hilarious bro." She drags her hand down her face, pulling down on her skin, and sighs exhaustedly. "With our luck that was their boss and we just gave'em a few less arms and pancaked his goddamn skull." She shakes her head again, then pats his shoulder firmly twice, allowing the armor to recede from him before entering the crushing weight of the Portal Hub, "Guess we might be in for one helluva surprise when we bring'em that gas aye?"