fandomtownies | All Over Fandom, Wednesday

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All Over Fandom, Wednesday

The blasted heath had spread slowly but progressively across the island over the previous day and the ensuing night. By now, the cabins themselves had gone grey and brittle-looking, and simply touching them could send whole chunks of wall collapsing into ashes and dust. And still, there seemed no end to the spread: like an inkblot, the corruption was now starting to spread out from the camp grounds.

There was another strange, alien detail, visible only to those who watched carefully. The plants that had been touched by the blasted heath had changed, seeming stranger, alien. They swayed slowly from one side to the other, leaves rustling, but there was no wind, no breeze to move them.

And from between them came more teal deer, monstrously deformed-- and alots, twisted and dark, and birds and rabbits and all the rest. They were hungry, and they would not stop.

[[ feel free to mod your monsters, or request an NPC here! ]]

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Alice had woken early -- no, that wasn't correct. Alice had slept fitfully, and had finally decided, past dawn, that she would stop tormenting herself and chasing a restfulness she wouldn't find.

She had set out to explore the island, seeking the source of discord, vorpal blade in hand. Her jangled nerves sought the hunt. She would find, and she would kill, and the situation would somehow improve. The logic was hazy past that point.

She knew it instinctively when she grew close. The plants were wrong, and the creatures scurrying underfoot were twisted, hollow freaks. The way things had been wrong in the Red Queen's corrupted Wonderland. The thought made her draw up short. Had she returned? Had she come to Fandom? Placed her tentacles into the ground, come seeking Alice's child?

A chill ran down her spine, but Alice shook her head firmly. No. This was nothing like Her Majesty's destruction. It didn't have the same familiar taste. This was something new.

The crack of a branch told her she hadn't been vigilant enough, and she whirled in time to flash her blade across the throat of what was once a teal deer. The monstrous thing fell to the ground, thrashing, and Alice waited until its spasms abated to kneel and drive her blade directly into its torso. Better to be sure.

Just as she did so, the former-deer reared its head, rousing itself just enough to make one last lunge for its attacker. Alice had been sensible enough to keep most of her squishy organs out of reach of the foul thing's mouth, so the best the deer could do was close its flat teeth firmly on the wrist which was holding her weight over the ground. It tugged, as a dog might when he takes one's sleeve in his mouth and wishes to guide one into the next room. And then, the deer was no more.

Alice slipped the vorpal blade from the creature's heart. A simple wipe against her pant-leg, and she returned it to its sheath. A light nudge, and she released the pitiful monster's hold on her arm. It had hardly broken the skin, and her shirt mopped up the deer saliva easily.

"Be at peace," she said, frowning at the carcass before her. Something felt more unsettling than ever, but she no longer felt driven to hunt. Perhaps she had only needed the kill, after all.

She would take a vigorous shower, and return to her bed. Perhaps, with one teal deer defeated, sleep would not be so elusive a prey.

There wasn't anything attacking right next to the dorms, at least. There wasn't much of anything anywhere. It was almost eerie.

"Should we head over to the campgrounds maybe?"

Topher was tiptoeing. Because he was deathly scared.

"Okay," he nearly squeaked.

And then he had a nervous little eye twitch that usually only came around if he saw girlparts. God, Tony. Could you pick a worse teammate?

Well, Topher was less likely to alter all of reality while having a psychotic break, so... second worst teammate ever. Beat out by Wanda Maximoff.

"Look, if anything happens, keep a clear path back to the dorms. I'll be right behind you."

Or beating things up as Iron Man. Who knew?

And Topher was actually calmed by that remark, believe it or not.

...Whatever, he understood the hierarchy around here.

"Sure," he said, nodding slowly.

And an inappropriate codependence began to blossom!

Awwww. It was sweet!

Tony nodded, looking around carefully before heading toward the campground. "If that's where they found it, there has to be some remnants, right?"

OR MORE OF IT LURKING.

"Sounds about right," Topher agreed, and peered over.

And there were big huge shadows in the distance that were very definitely deer-shaped.

"Uh." He swallowed. "Definitely, um, right there?"

Tony froze for a moment. "Maybe they won't see us?" he whispered.

"I thought the point was us seeing them," Topher hissed.

GOD, TONY.

"Yes, but where we're a safe spot and they can't bite us," Tony hissed back. Because those looked like very angry, very sharp deer shaped blobs.

"...they're still mostly blue-ish."

Teal. The color was teal.

"Teal," Topher corrected him absently.

"So, uh. This, uh, this would be the safe spot, then, right?"

Because he did not want to get any closer.

"I think so," Tony confirmed, pulling his phone out of his pocket to take a picture of them. "...horrible thought."

WHAT? OH GOD, WHAT?

"...What?"

"If they have what we have... are we going to look like that?"

Topher swallowed hard. And squinted at the deer.

After a minute, he managed, "I might throw up."

Tony nodded in agreement. "Let's see if we can get closer to the campgrounds. Maybe there will be something more there."

LIKE AN ANGRY ALOT?

"Stealthily!" Topher cautioned in a hiss. For whatever reason, he held up a hand and bunny-hopped his way to hide behind the nearest tree, then beckoned for Tony to follow.

TOPHER. YOU ARE NOT THE LEADER OF THIS OPERATION. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STAY STILL.

Tony just barely resisted the urge to facepalm before following him. This could only end in someone shrieking like a little girl.

"Walk, don't hop, you spaz."

Shrieking like a little girl? Surely Topher didn't know anything about that.

"Shhh!" he hissed, unnecessarily. "Those things are natural predators! They'll hear you!"

Topher. They're deer.

"...still deer," Tony reminded him. No, he couldn't read narrative, but he knew enough about biology to know that, damn it.

"Just," he whispered. "Move slowly. No need to attract attention."

Psh, biology. If it wasn't human stuff -- with the exception of that icky reproductive stuff -- Topher saw no reason to bother with it.

"Got it!" he said, giving Tony a little salute, and he crept forward more.

But he stuck to hiding behind trees. Trees were safe. Probably.

"Quietly!" Tony hissed desperately. This was a horrible idea.

It really, really was, Tony. Really.

"I am being quiet!" Topher hissed back.

Of course, then he tripped over a tree root and caused a nearby squirrel to chitter furiously at him.

Which was enough to draw the attention of a nearby alot, causing it to snort in outrage and dig at the ground with one deformed hoof. Claw. It was a bit of both, really.

"Topher, stop moving!"

And now it noticed Tony as well!

Topher froze, staring in horror at the alot. He was terrified to move even his lips, so with his mouth firmly shut and a fake smile on his face to keep the alot at bay, he managed to mumble, "Wh't sh'ld w' do?"

Maybe not have come out here in the first place, boys? (Though you could say the same for Stephanie, arguably.)

"Now, now, boys," called the masked and obnoxiously brightly-clad girl who'd dropped out of a nearby tree to fling a batarang at the alot's, um, dangerous-looking appendage. "Did you miss the 'please don't feed the wildlife' sign, or did that crumble into dust when someone breathed on it?"

...damn it, Tony wanted to be the one doing dramatic entrances.

"It's for science," he muttered, inching toward Topher to get him up onto his feet and, you know, moving away from the angry thing that was making it's way toward them all.

Topher stood up very slowly, then muttered in Tony's ear with as little lip movement as possible, "Should we be running now?"

Robin -- or Stephanie, but let's not split hairs -- looked like she might be trying not to laugh while making shooing gestures with one hand.

Oh, and sort of flail-bouncing all around the alot to keep it distracted.

"Far be it from me to stand in the way of science, but -- yow!" She had to dive and roll out of the way of a swiping claw. "That's alot of dedication, but science yourselves up something zappy before wandering out here, sheesh!"

"Next time!" Tony said, pushing Topher to move. "Run for the dorms! Just get inside!"

He grabbed the strap of his backpack, thumb sliding down to find the button there for as soon as Topher was gone.

Aaaaaand Topher ran. Like a desperately uncoordinated agoraphobe whose feet had some kind of magnetic pull to tree roots. He fell flat on his face once, twice -- oh, and a third time, resulting in a nosebleed.

And his nose had just healed from Kate's punch, too!

"And no stopping to collect samples on the way back!" Robin yelled over her shoulder.

Not that she'd stay very long herself. Yikes.

. . . the grey-ness reminded her of home, though.

Pulling his hand away, Tony made a frustrated noise and ran over to ~~drag~~ help Topher up. "C'mon!"

Damn you, Topher! He was totally a hero toooooo!

"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow!" Topher yelped, using the hand not currently occupied by Tony to hold the bottom of his shirt up to cover his nose.

...There was probably a smarter way of doing that.

"Are we running now?" he panted.

Oh, right -- uncoordinated agoraphobic asthmatic.

"Running very fast," Tony snapped, mostly dragging Topher now. He really needed to work on more muscle mass if he had to do this ever again. "Before things try to eat us."

"I don't think that crazy chick wanted to -- " Gasp for breath -- "eat us," he wheezed.

Now, on to more important matters.

"Why does this island have it in for my nose?" he wailed as they made their way back toward the dorm.

Tony gave him a pat on the arm. "You should try running. It will help with your balance."

Ahahahah. Oh yeah, that would work.

"That doesn't make any sense!" Topher objected. He would just end up falling and hurting his nose even more, and sooner or later he'd probably get some kind of concussion or brain damage! And while that would be a good sign for the rest of the world, it would kind of reduce his marketable skills to zero.

"Are we -- almost -- there yet?" he panted when they were just feet from the dorms.

And why didn't he know that? Because he was doubled over and wheezing.

Tony was being tested. That was the only plausible explanation. "Almost."

Topher looked up.

"Oh."

Then turned around. "Think we're safe?"

"Safer inside the building," Tony replied, wondering what he did to deserve this. CIVIL WAR DID NOT COUNT.

Hey! He gave Topher the idea to end the world. He deserved what he got.

"Let's go there," Topher proposed wisely.

Ooh, ooh, he had a great idea!

"Video games?"

GOD, TONY. HOW DID YOU MANAGE WITHOUT STABBING HIM IN THE THROAT?

IT WAS A TRUE TEST OF MORAL FIBER.

Tony stared at him for a moment. "Maybe later today. I should--get something to eat."

Or check on Stephanie.

"Cool," Topher pronounced, idly scratching at some grey skin on his inner arm as he bounded toward the dorms. "See you later, man-friend!"

...When did that happen?

IT WAS THE SCIENCE!

"...see ya."

Tony made friends with villains, okay? It was canon.

Things were strange in Fandom, that was well established. But between there being a strange rock and mutated animals, Nightwing was happy to stick to the Preserve's trees as he got a firsthand look at what was happening. This definitely seemed like some kind of magic, so Nightwing was somewhat out of his element as a detective here, so he was going to do his best to observe from a safe distance to get a feel for the physical aspect of that strangeness. It was foolish to think he was safe up there, a fact that he realized when he fell out of the tree as it was shaken by an alot.

Fortunately, Nightwing knew how to react to falling. As he twisted to land on his feet, he pulled out a bird-a-rang and heaved it at the alot. From the groan, it sounded like the attack hurt alot, giving Nightwing a chance to move before the groaning attracted attention from more animals.

He'd seen enough. Magic may not have been his thing, but it was clear that fighting ability would be useful very soon. He was going to have to hone his skills a little because they would be needed.

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All Over Fandom, Wednesday

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