Micolash, Host of the Nightmare (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grantuseyes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nexus_crossings2018-12-06 06:25 pm
grantuseyes) wrote in nexus_crossings2018-12-06 06:25 pm
What's In A Name?
Micolash sits cross-legged on a table. Strewn all around him are ink pots (some overturned and spilled), parchment paper (in stacks and scattered alike), pens and nibs and a few sticks of charcoal. His fingers are stained with ink and there are a few splotches somehow on his face and on his pinstripe trousers, along with a dark handprint on the metal collar of his cage. The side of his left hand, the one he's currently holding a pen with, is smudged even worse with black.
There are discarded drawings all around him, some that look like false starts on some manner of monsters. Some are just pages crammed with drawings of eyes, or scrawls repeating phrases or rambling prose. Some are crumpled up into paper wads or have half-hearted attempts at scratching out or erasing the contents.
The parchment Micolash currently has in front of him is being scrutinized by the scholar. Looking over his handiwork and trying to determine if it passes whatever muster he's going for. It's certainly a drawing of SOMETHING.
Whatever verdict he's pondering, it doesn't prevent Micolash from looking up and addressing whatever person is wandering close to his work station.
"What does your name mean? Do you know? Do you care?"
There are discarded drawings all around him, some that look like false starts on some manner of monsters. Some are just pages crammed with drawings of eyes, or scrawls repeating phrases or rambling prose. Some are crumpled up into paper wads or have half-hearted attempts at scratching out or erasing the contents.
The parchment Micolash currently has in front of him is being scrutinized by the scholar. Looking over his handiwork and trying to determine if it passes whatever muster he's going for. It's certainly a drawing of SOMETHING.
Whatever verdict he's pondering, it doesn't prevent Micolash from looking up and addressing whatever person is wandering close to his work station.
"What does your name mean? Do you know? Do you care?"
no subject
It can't be a coincidence that the tentacles he sees emerging are blue, the same color as the Thing's tentacles. Besides which, Kinner's pretty sure that the Thing which attacked his team wasn't the only Thing in the universe. There had to be more of them. The Thing knew who he was, the tentacles were coiling to grab him. They'd tasted Kinner before, been him, and God only knew if they liked the taste...
Kinner definitely isn't about to give the Thing a second helping of cook if he can help it. Why is the stranger sprouting tentacles? Is he a Thing? But Things didn't talk once they were exposed, so what's going on?
If Micolash is willing to try and summon the creature, Kinner's not going to sit idly by. He desperately scans the area for a weapon, something he can use to fend the monster off if it manifests fully. He's not going to be assimilated without a fight this time.
No! No, I am not thrilled! You, maybe, but leave me out of this!
Kinner doesn't like the look of those tentacles at all. Maybe it's not the Thing that's being summoned by Micolash's chanting, or where the tentacles came from, but Kinner's not exactly in the mood to find out. He doesn't like the feeling of what's going on here in general.
"Look, the Thing's dangerous! I know you think it's some sort of god, and I don't know what it is, but it'll eat you!"
Judging from the chanting, this scholar considered it an honor to be assimilated by such a being. Kinner doesn't share the sentiment.
"Do you know what it is?" Kinner finally asks, as loudly as he could. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand a word you're saying!"
no subject
What he whips out is, apparently, a disc on a cord, like some kind of weaponised metal yo-yo. The disc is iron, covered with, among other things, a substance called aglaophotis, and engraved with multiple variations on the Elder Sign.
"Y'nhai!" he shouts. "W'ganath Nodens anunag'lth!" The disc glows blue and he snaps it outward on its cord toward Micolash in a wide arc with a brilliant blue roostertail of light.
no subject
Micolash drones further prayers, still leering with a rictus grin and wild blue eyes, still leaning forward from his kneeling spot on the table. Clutching the edge of it with his actual hands while the tentacles continue to unfurl and slither along the surfaces like sickening, invasive vines. Several continue to reach and grasp towards Kinner, now with more speed, more urgency, more excitement. The man is slippery, but Micolash is quick. Just a little effort is all that's needed here…
The interloper swinging an object towards him is enough to make Micolash rear back with unlikely agility, despite the cage, despite his mania making his movements look as drunken as his words sound. Still smiling, eyes glittering with confusion and delight at once. “A trick weapon! I just knew-“
But Micolash’s words are cut short when the scent of aglaophotis hits him. At the exact same moment, his skull practically vibrates with the sharp, solitary, bell-like clang it causes in his brain matter. He winces once. And then again, with a short cry of unexpected alarm when his head jerks violently enough to one side to bang his temple into the bars of his cage. The same side that strikes rusted metal erupts briefly with a small flash, blue sparkles, a streak of glowing white that leaves behind smoke dripping like slime before it vanishes.
In the exact same instant as that flash from Micolash’s temple, all of the tentacles either retract or simply fall off, puffing into more slimy smoke once they hit the floor.
Micolash himself looks startled. Then turns his head to look in the direction that white streak went.
“Oh no!”
It’s like he forgot he was even menacing anyone to begin with, and was menaced in turn. The scholar clambers off of the table and is already chasing after that shimmering glow with a wobbly gait.
“Come back, oh, do come back! There is nothing to fear!”
He calls after whatever the hell presumably zipped out from his skull as he totters further and faster away. Like an owner chasing after a spooked and fleeing pet.
no subject
Kinner doesn't notice the new arrival immediately, still desperately trying to avoid the tentacles. He doesn't know if they're Thing-tendrils or not, but knowing what he does about the Thing he's not going to take any chances on letting one touch him.
With a sense of mounting horror, he realizes that the stranger wants to be infected by the Thing, and doesn't seem to care what happens to Kinner in the process.
He hears more strange words, though they're not in the chanting stranger's voice, and they draw his attention long enough for Kinner to make it to the far wall, still gaping and terrified. He shuts his eyes, half expecting to feel tentacles wrapping around him and merging with his flesh again, consuming him, becoming him...
He opens an eye a crack, noticing he is, in fact, still alive and tentacle-free.
What's going on here? What did the strange weapon do to Kinner's attacker? The cage-headed man's clearly still alive, but he seems to no longer be interested in terrorizing Kinner. He ought to leave right now, but somebody had saved him.
Kinner's relieved to see the tentacles disappear, though he still avoids touching the slime as he staggers to his feet. He's tired and more that a little scared, judging from his wheezing breaths and quick heartbeat, but he's all right. The stranger's gone. The small cook wipes sweat from his eyebrow, relieved and turning to the person who rescued him.
"Thank you. My name's Joseph Kinner, formerly of the Secondary Magnetic Expedition. I - I don't think we've met." He offers a hand to the newcomer. "Pleasure to meet you."
no subject
He's a young fellow--most likely a student at said University. "We haven't met, no. I'm kinda new here." He winds the cord round the disc before placing it back in his satchel.
"What was that?"
no subject
Kinner guessed the newcomer was young, and he's impressed. He wonders...
"The reason he was interested in me? I was attacked by a monster during my expedition. It killed me, but it was a shapeshifter - it could steal the memories and the bodies of the people it ate. That guy seemed to think that made me special in some way."