The Best Thing About Not Being Home is Missing You

[preuxchevalier]

There are people back home that your character hates. Or maybe they love them, but they're terrible people/influences. Here's your chance to talk or play out that special someone turning up in the Meadous. Are they so far out of their element that they're now defanged tigers? Do they lead right in with their wicked ways? What is your character's CR even going to think when they meet this person?
 

Post with your own character or the person they most/least want to see again who's a bad thing for them. Feel free to play out encounters in the snow between this character and your regular character's CR, or talk it out with if you're not sure you've got the voice down.
 

Fun for all ages! And by fun, we mean misery!

Comments

[skullmotif]

Jacob's head gives a sharp lift at Bertie's command to stop, but he does no such thing. He's felt such words before, and to one of his experience and power, it was nothing. "Yes, yes. You would be, thinking to be ordering me around like that." It was almost a pity. He had very much wanted to smash his walking stick into the fool's head. Now that was off the table, for he didn't want to damage the walking stick.

He does come closer, but his pace is slow. "...she's being what? To who?" And though the look of disgust and disappointment hasn't left his face, inside he's more amused than anything. How clever of her, feigning interest in some man in the interests of manipulating him. "That's a suspiciously specific denial, sir. Are you sure?" ...okay, now he's just screwing with the man.

[skullmotif]

The same sort of flicker of recognition flashed across Jacob's face when Hajime gave his name. Yes, wasn't that the name on the mailbox that stood next to Natalie's? How interesting that this is who she had chosen to 'be dippy' about.

He let his features settle, and gave a curt nod. "I know her well. She's my child. And if I'm not mistaken, you know her well." The fingers that had been drumming on the walking stick's head were now clutching it tightly. "Tell me, Hajime... how is she doing, all tucked away in this little realm?"

hi have one dot of nightmare

[itsbraveanditburns]

Yeah, he does kind of smell like Natalie used to, only way worse. Karkat is about to sniff under his armpits to see if he smells too, only Jacob's mention of blood, even from penguins, reminds him that he's still not full yet.

"Fuck yes," he says, almost agreeably, and runs off in the direction of said penguins.

They... are fucking hard to catch, actually. Shit. Shit. Why the fuck won't they just--

--stay--

--STILL?

Karkat dashes at another penguin head on, hissing in displeasure and baring fang at the stupid fucking bird. It cowers underneath him, shaking, too scared to even move. Good. Good. Little asshole should be afraid. He grabs onto it while it's cowering and sinks its teeth into its stupid shoulder.

His face in these moments leading up to the bite bestial, hungry, and completely fucking terrifying.

The blood doesn't taste nearly as good as Jacob's, but it's still blood, it's filling him up and that's good, that's fuckin great. He sucks and sucks until the bird is drained dry. It's just a fucking bird, after all. Who cares about it?

[preuxchevalier]

Bertie was seriously beginning to wonder if Natalie hadn't told him wrong about these powers he was meant to have. Fat lot of good they seemed to do most of the time. He shot a glance over his shoulder as he considered legging it. This man was making him incredibly anxious, and Bertie's Beast was beginning to claw at him. It would be so easy to let that deal with fending off the angry Mr. Waters.

Of course, that might set him off, and then they'd be a pair of monsters running crazy about the village. Bertie reins in the increasingly powerful urge to lash out at the other man, to break him. To bend him to a will that should be far away and above his.

"No. No! I mean yes! Yes, I'm sure!" Surely a man in a suit wouldn't pursue him if Bertie took to wing. That would require divesting himself of the top half of his oufit, though. And Bertie also wasn't entirely sure it would work. He hadn't tried to form his wings since he'd been transformed. His Lamb powers seemed to work, though. "Sh-she's an absolute ungrateful wretch of a girl."

That... might not have been the best piece of opinion to use in evidence of his lack of interest. "But don't, um... I've got terrible opinions. 'Bertram,' they say, 'have you got an opinion on that girl?'

"'Just so,' I reply, cocking the old chapeau at a doggy angle, 'she makes Stiffy Byng look like a regular angel.'

'Chuh!' they return, with not a little feeling. 'We knew better than to ask you, you chump!'"

This kid's got potential

[skullmotif]

It was only after making the stroll to the pond and spending some time in pursuit of penguins that Jacob's goddamned common sense started fully filtering back into his brain. It had left him in a zen-like state that was helpful in thwacking penguins with his walking stick to stun them... but after draining one dry (and finding it not all that bad, really), he really looked at Karkat. Looked at him scampering about, no real way to catch his prey. Looked at him, really younger than someone ought to have been embraced. Looked at him...

Holy fuck, did he just... he just used Nightmare on that penguin.

Jacob tosses his own exsanguinated bird aside, and slowly moves to Karkat's side. "Impressive. You're taking to this alarmingly well. Have you been a vampire before?" It's only mostly joking. Apparently the little deity could strip vampirism away. Better check.

[nephewcrusher]

Agatha gave a bark of alarm not unlike a mastiff sounding the ranks over the moors of Lincolnshire. She turned and tried to run, but simply slipped on the icy ground and went flailing into a snow drift outside. She rolled over and made every attempt to fight at the monster that the boy had apparently been keeping in his house.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime hesitates. "Well, before I came here, I got taken to a couple of other places. A small town in America. A giant spaceship." He falls silent a moment. "Time...passes strangely in places like this."

[chalicejoker]

Costume? Darkroach looks down at himself as though to confirm that no, he is not wearing a costume, then looks back at Codi. He shrugs and steps outside of the house, carefully shutting the door behind him. Hajime had gotten mad the last time he left it open.

He scratched at his head and chirped again, for he didn't think there were any parades about just now.

oh goody

[itsbraveanditburns]

Karkat shakes his head. "Fuck no." But the corners of his mouth turn up; he's definitely pleased with the praise. "I scared the fuck out of that bird. That's... that's pretty fucking cool. Is that a vampire thing or a bird thing?"

His eyes do look the tiniest bit more sunken in than before.

[skullmotif]

The direction that this conversation was proceeding in was doing little for Jacob's urge to biff this Bertram upside the head with his walking stick. He even shifted his grip on it, holding it lower, ready to swing it back... needing to vent that rage somehow, he instead snapped the stick upwards, the head of the cane coming to rest roughly beneath Bertie's chin.

"That's enough. Enough of your 'terrible opinions'. Perhaps its time that I find Natalie and have a word with her, myself. You wouldn't happen to know where I might find her, Bertram?"

[sharpsister]

"Oh... you were traveling? But you were still at home with us...." The talk of America doesn't mean much to her, but at the talk of the spaceship, her face lights up. "Aaah! You were in space? For real? You're kidding, Hajime! How'd you get onto a space ship?" He's teasing. He must be teasing. Even if things like monsters and Kamen Riders were real, some things still had to be imaginary.

[preuxchevalier]

It was reflex, pure reflex born of having monsters swing at him with things far worse than walking sticks, that had Bertie's hands up and attempting to grab and twist the thing away from the other man with a desperate force. "Don't!" His fangs were out, and he bared them at Jacob in fear and anger.

This was bad. This was very bad. He needed to disengage right now for everyone's sake.

[chalicejoker]

It occurred to Hajime that perhaps unexpectedly coming across her father who apparently had some idea of what they'd been doing all this time was not the best thing. He assumed that there was some facet of human interaction that might have prepared him for such an encounter, only he was uncertain as to how to proceed on some level. Humans dealt with this sort of thing all the time, after all. Territorial monster posturing, he could handle. But not surprise relatives.

"She's...doing well enough, given the circumstances." He maintained most of his outer calm, but inwardly, he wondered if he was doing this right. His body language became slightly tense, although his facial expression didn't change. A human would know how to proceed. And he was not a human. Undead didn't do interpersonal relationships, as much as Hajime was trying to learn. "Things happened. She's no longer a vampire, but..." He stopped for a moment, considering how to go on. "She's handling it." He wondered if he should add something to the effect that she'd stopped him from tearing apart the one responsible. That might make things even more awkward.

[chalicejoker]

Darkroach scrambled after the poor lady who had fallen down into the snow drift. Don't worry, lady, he'll pull you out! He was making a few reassuring chirps as he tried to pull her out of the snow.

Hajime just watched all this play out from the doorway of his house. Sure, he could call Darkroach off, but where would be the fun in that? "What was that you were saying about monsters?"

[chalicejoker]

"I promise! I was on a space ship. One moment, I was in America, and then I woke up to some alien shoving a lot of paperwork in my face." He's fine if she thinks he's teasing, and the smiling way he's saying this isn't doing much to dispel the notion.

[shiromadoushi]

"Eh? Aura of Darkness?" the teen repeated, blinking a few times. "What are you talking about?"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime had been in situations like this before. Once, back home, when he and Mutsuki thought Kenzaki and Tachibana had been corrupted by one of BOARD's chimerical Undead. His reaction this time was much the same as it had been with Kenzaki that first time.

Without any warning, he lashed out at Bakura, swinging his fist in a nice right hook. Darkroach hissed in alarm and fell back to cower behind Hajime; he had no idea what was going on, but his minion instincts were hardwired to the point he would always back Hajime up in a fight. Even if he wasn't very good at fighting.

[shiromadoushi]

Suddenly at alert, the teen dodged to the side, hand snapping out to try and grab Hajime's wrist.

[truthmayvary]

Even so, Warren's feathers didn't seem ruffled at all. Warren gets out a clean pot and some water and sets it over the fire. "Of course,I tend to travel around. But unfortunately, due to rules put into place by things bigger and better than I, I can't." He frowned a little. "A lot of people want to leave for some reason, I don't know why actually. Its actually a nice peaceful place here. I would set down some roots myself, maybe start a family. Have kids and a dog- maybe even get a tie. I hear ties are important when starting a family."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime's Undead reflexes kicked in, and he nimbly avoided that wrist grab, only to back off. His transformation belt appeared around his waist. "Are you going to tell me what you are, or do I have to use a little force?"

[oldhippie]

"I don't know about that," Nemo says, "I certainly wasn't wearing one when Meulin and I got married--not that we had a wedding--and I really doubt I was wearing one when my kids were born either."

He's already plotting ways to cut and run after he drinks his coffee, leaving Warren with Lady Worplesdon to deal with. He was a supernatural being. He ought to be able to handle it.

[nephewcrusher]

Aunt Agatha sputtered in the snow, batting away Darkroach's attempts at attacking her. "You vile, boy! Call it off. You will call it off this instant!"

[chalicejoker]

"No, I don't think I will." Hajime was kicked back and continuing to watch from the doorway. "He needs the exercise."

Darkroach was still doggedly trying to rescue the poor fallen-over lady in all her wild flailing. He hissed when one of those batting attempts bopped him where his nose might be if he had one. Lady, he's just trying to help!

"Careful there, Darkroach," Hajime called after the minion, "watch those claws of yours. I don't want any more accidental poisonings." Actually, he was very careful to keep the insect's claws trimmed to avoid just that, but Agatha didn't need to know that. And really, he could have made it worse, transforming into his natural state to watch "his boy" attempt to help the woman. It was tempting, even if he loathed the form.

[ignes_fatui]

"Really? And you don't recall being anywhere else between then and now?" Well, there goes that hypothesis. And he'd been so sure of it, too. He sighs, mentally going over all the people here for any other commonality. "Prior to you, all of the other people present here had been taken from their native realities once before. I understand from talking to Bertie that your homeworld has no others connected to it, but to explain there are a great many others out there. In particular there are at least a half-dozen Londons that I'm aware of, all recognizably London but subtly different in their own ways."

It's strongly tempting to ask her if she's absolutely certain that the London in which she found herself was the one that belonged in her homeworld, and if she'd noticed any strange travelers while she was there, but he feels like he'd best explain before trying to press the issue.

"But I digress. Bertie and I met in a place called the Incipisphere, having been transported there along with somewhere around a hundred others to participate in the conflict between the two warring nations of Prospit and Derse, essentially acting as soldiers upon their battlefield with the promise of some greater reward at the end. Most of us assumed that this would be returning home after it was all over, but this was not the case, and some of us found ourselves here." He purposefully admits a good number of the details, like how it called itself a game and the frogs and the ultimate reward being a universe. That seems like it wouldn't be terribly helpful right now.

"In short, Bertie and I are comrades in arms, and fought closely together for much of our time there."

[nephewcrusher]

Agatha wrinkles her nose at Warren as she's immediately reminded of Bertie; this man is a driveling idiot. "While you both may have no ties to anywhere," she says, assuming Nemo is a gypsy, as well - his skin is dark enough and the fact that the man hasn't bothered with wedding his wife is indication enough, "I do. I already have a family, Mr. Warren. I was taken from it and brought here by your 'bigger and better' forces. There are matters to attend to. My husband will simply not tolerate my absence, and I despair of the state I may find England in if my nephews aren't properly managed. None of them are married." She says this as if it may be counted as one of the worst character defects a man could have.