Full Moon, Hungry Bellies

They had regrouped! Well, had they? She could have sworn that they were together at some point for a mission. So why was it that she couldn’t remember them meeting up in the first place? Something smelled good nearby. Juicy, ripe, good. She could hear both of her teammates speaking to her. She was processing, you know? But at the same time, it was as though listening underwater. It was far easier to listen to her own thoughts and drown out that which was everything else.

Idly, she would lick up the stickiness from her fingers before her eyes would snap towards Daiko. He was patting her- her face? That felt...hmm. Before, she was starting to focus her attention towards Freyja, the scent of wood bringing her in. But this was different. Living, breathing, warm. Maybe a little bit full of threads. But that didn’t matter. It was perfect for her needs. She wanted to fetch.

So she would bite! And miss, an unhappy growl building in the back of her throat as she would watch Daiko brandish the arm as an implement before her. That was unfair! Why was it that she couldn’t get it? If she got it, she would get to...to do what, exactly? Something in the back of her mind was saying that she shouldn’t be this focused upon it. And yet she was.

Her eyes would focus with laser precision upon the arm. There it was! Right in front of her. She could have it? She totally could, couldn’t she? “The stick! I want the stick! The stick, stick, stick!” It certainly wasn’t a stick, but that was the only word she could muster in her brain at the moment. She could feel the blood rushing through her, filling her with energy and purpose. Any moment now. Any moment-

The arm flew through the air. And with unnatural speed for her she would run, racing across the dark forest at a reckless pace until she would find the arm. Bending down to grasp ahold of it with her head- which unfortunately would cause her to crash mightily from the sudden unbalance, crashing through several headstones before rolling to a stop at Dana’s feet. Still, she had the arm in her hand. So all was good, no?

Well, no. Something smelled downright awful, here. The smell of rot, pus, exposed bone. Mold and mildew. Enough to cause her to grow nauseous, before burying her nose in her now far more ragged cloak to cover the nose. Ah, a new person? When had she shown up? Or perhaps it was her who had appeared? She was decidedly...furry, she noted. Still, was that a bad thing? Of course, there was one thing she would need to assert before getting up.

“Ish mah stick.” She would mumble through her mouthful of arm before crawling to her feet, now cradling the limb in her arms. Looking around, glaring at the strange incident of the living dead around them. “Who are these weirdoes?”

===

[1318]

[Awoo! 750/750]
[Oh shit, Zombies [568/1000]

So listen. My dear listeners, it is not unusual to see our dear protagonist lost in some useless endeavor, flitting and fleeting about as she makes less than ideal situations. It is a bit unusual to see her being the most responsible in the group. Generally there are people in her team who can help reign her in and make sure she stays mostly on task. It's a perfect set up with the group trying desperately to keep her focused and the sheer power and talent the small girl holds proving enough to overcome anything thrown at her, but today... Today does not seem to be one of those days. Saya's main team, Kute on sight(Kos for short) Seemed to all share the same one braincell. Today, apparently, it was Saya's turn to hold it. I cannot express how horible of a decision that is.

She was off in an instant, threads taking hold of her body as she realized that a. Dana had wandered off and b. Kiku was now chasing a stick that was not a stick, but instead daiko's entire arm for.... reasons? directly into the graveyard she'd noticed and considered going into earlier. While it seemed a great place for a mission objective, It was a horible place to actually, yanno, walk into in a creepy haloween village. And yet here they were. THankfully her decision to rush into the sketchy situation was rewarded ten fold. This is a joke. There are zombies.

"Daiko. You didn't say you were meeting family here!" it was a bit of a crass joke, and she would appologize immediately if it didn't go over well, but for now she needed to take inventory of the situation.

"These guys don't look very nice.... Or alive. Maybe we should get out of the situation? Might have to do a hell of a lot of fighting if we plan on staying in a graveyard that's spawning zombies. " Ai actually took a moment to glance at Saya in surprise. Was there some malfunction in their mental split, or did she really just make a good decision. She made a mental note to mark this day on the callender just in case.

She studied the area, Eyes well versed at taking in every detail of their surroundings trying to find some clue as to how or why any of this happened. Then she noticed it.

There was.... Uh. Well. Yanno in that old gauntlet game? Yea, that's the one. With the large glowing tombstones attached to a wall that everyone learns upong walking up to that it's a spawner for mobs? I don't know HOW it got into the real world, but as she watched, she saw zombies walking out of it one by one. There were also a number of hands sticking out of the ground, dead bodies brought to a sort of consciousness as they fought against the packed earth to free themselves. This was decidedly not a great situation to be in, but here they were.

(TWC 1280 first mission done 530/1k towards second )

First Bob had turned on her, and now some furry human was trying to assert dominance over a stick that was actually an arm... A very odd-looking arm at that. For the first time in her life Dana couldn't say that she'd been in weirder situations, as this was definitely up there on her list of weird experiences. Oh well, Dana's greatest character trait was her ability to roll with the punches. She made a 'Go ahead' gesture to the weird dog girl and gave her a quick pat on the head with a plain smile on her face. Oh yeah, they were currently about to be eaten by zombies. She should probably deal with that.

"I 'aven't the foggiest idea." Dana said with a small smile. Well, Bob was definitely a lost cause as he was now ripping off his arm to try and club her over the head with it. She dodged it again and summoned a large club of her own with Cutting to bonk him on the head with. Somehow, because of her dream strength, Dana hit Bob's head so hard that he sunk into the ground far enough that only his head was still visible above ground. Hey, that was really cool. Maybe she should retrain herself so that her considerable Vigor was replaced with considerable Strength. Then she'd be able to bonk people on the head far more effectively than she otherwise could. Another thing to add to the list.

Others were starting to arrive at the graveyard, not zombies. Dana recognized her friend instantly and shot her a big wave and a grin, "Heya Saya! Nice of ye to join us." There was another guy who wasn't a zombie, but she didn't recognize him. He also appeared to be missing an arm... Which explained how the werewolf girl had a weird arm. Huh, it sure was nice when mysteries like that just solved themselves.

Well, now that the others were here it was time for Dana to try and carpet bomb this entire graveyard. She held up one of her mittened hands and breathed out slowly in preparation, then activated Dark River Breaking Seal. Instantly, half a dozen balls of tightly compressed chakra shot out from her raised palm and exploded, engulfing little more than half of the graveyard in big explosions. "Grand," Dana said self-appreciatively. Unfortunately, Dana had somehow managed to miss literally every zombie and nothing about their situation had changed. Even the weird spawner was still churning out zombies. The only thing was that the zombies were now a little bit closer to the group. Well... That didn't go quite as planned.

WC: 444
TWC: 1319

Daiko tossed the arm far, and everything had gone as planned. Nice. Daiko was really happy with this result, even though he only had one arm remaining. Running over to where the arm was thrown, Daiko notices.. Oh hey. It's Dana. That was cool. It seemed like they were over here vibing, having a good time talking to these rotten folk. Nodding his head, Daiko looks around before hearing Saya something. W..Wha... Daiko squints for a second. He wasn't aware that Saya was capable of that kind of humor. If anyone else had said it, Daiko likely would've used some super awesome amazing tech that would rend them but, well. Two things. Daiko only had one arm, and well. He'd seen those weird-ass wooden dogs that Saya had made in the past. He was happy with his chest cavity being perfectly intact. "Yo that's pretty fucked up homie, not gonna lie." Daiko laughed, not really bothered at all by the joke, and then he took note of the situation. It looked like everyone was doing their random squabble of things, and Daiko walked up and patted the wolf-kiku's head, looking around. It seemed like there were... Creatures, coming from the deep. They both shambled and ran, answering the age-old question that was brought about by the ancients. 

Stretching his one still-attached arm, Daiko walks around, looking to see if he should kill the zombies. Just then, he saw Dana.. Wait what the fuck was Dana doing. As soon as he'd looked, she'd been shooting death orbs all around that was raining a maelstrom of destruction and carnage. Without taking so much as a moment to think, Daiko's head and torso quickly phased out of existence, and he was struck by one of the floating orbs. This didn't hurt him for plot reasons, but it ended up blowing off his three remaining limbs, which were scattered around. Daiko's other arm, actually.. Seemed to be picked up by a zombie, who was about to use it as a weapon. What the fuck was going on here man. Dropping to the ground, stumpy Daiko quickly unphased, and uses his black threads to create 8 50 cm thick spider legs that came out of his back, and he brought himself to the upright position. Quickly weaving handseals with his core, Daiko creates a devouring sphere on the spawner of all these monsters, which quickly begins to envelop them and tear them apart. Using his spidery appendages, Daiko swiftly moves around, first collecting his legs. He re-attaches them with some more threads that come out, though for the moment they are just dangling. "Yo, Kiku, throw the stick!! Come here! Toss it!" If she threw it, he would quickly use a black thread from his arm stump to catch it and reattach it, and it would continue to dangle. Now all that was left was to get his last arm and put a stop to these zombies once and for all. "Oh. And uh. That zombie has my arm. Uhh--- Mind the arm, alright. I need that." 

[512]
{1308}

It was her stick. It was hers, it was hers and she would make sure that it stayed hers. It was warm, and it leaked somewhat, to be sure- but it smelled like the scent of somebody familiar. Somebody who, despite knowing in the back of her mind that what she was doing was highly unusual, she could trust. The one who owned this stick, or gave her this stick rather, was the one who she would listen to. It was simply the way that things were. And she would protect him, as well.


Mmm, headpats. It rustled her scalp in just the right way, melting away the stresses of the situation and causing her tail to wag about in a manner that might be considered somewhat unbecoming in polite company. Granted, she usually wasn’t sporting such wolfish appendages- so who was to say that she could be held to such standards? It’s a bit like asking how to eat with four arms when one only has two. It’s simply not a relevant endeavor to pursue.


She could defeat these zombies. In fact, she had a whole strategy to do so. First, using all the remaining wits she had in this addled state-


A sudden cacophony of explosions. And then-


“More sticks!” She would cheer. Utterly ecstatic, she would bolt through the graveyard in a manner somewhat akin to a dog off their leash- absentmindedly crashing through zombie and gravestone alike in her search to obtain every ‘stick’ she could. With the arm she had already in her mouth, it was childs play to catch the falling limb in midair, and then rush about with a buzzing and playful energy to obtain the other two. This was so fun! She really should play these sort of games with her friends more often. Who knew that fetch was so enjoyable?


Skittering in front of Daiko, she would note with a small mement of shock that he was supporting himself through a decidedly gruesome set of spider appendages- before remembering something far more important. The sticks! Dropping the three in her arms to the ground, before popping out the final arm from her mouth, she would extend it outwards to Daiko with a lunar shine in her eyes.


“Look! I got the sticks! Did I do good?” Her task completed, she would flop down on the ground with the lupine tail still wagging behind her- utterly unheeding of the chaos around her, as in fact her ‘mission’ had been completed. Who said that search and retrieve wasn’t a job after all?


===


(Exit upon the posts of Daiko, Saya and Dana. Will edit in claims shortly.)


[1807]


[Awoo! 750/750]
[Oh shit, Zombies [1000/1000]

Claiming as follows (25% discount due to full stats):

14000 ryo (+500 chunin pay, 14500 total)
70AP
18 Halloween tickets


Jutsu and Techniques:
Chakra Suppression [1750/1750]

Remaining 67 words to Chakra Storage Seal [936/1500, previous words from Striking At Success

While it was important to have fun, there was something very important they should note. There were a whole load of zombies around. Zombies were dangerous. Saya had seen that one really funny zombie movie enough times to know that you didn't screw around with zombies. IF they bite you or if like. you have an open cut or something--Ok so she hadn't really paid attention on any of her watching of that movie. What was it called? zombie town? No thats not it. Zombie usa. Thats rediculous. What even is a usa. OH OH OH! Zombie land. Yes. that's it. 

"Kiku NO No playing fetch with the zombies. Daiko. Dana. Please. These things could b... Nevermind. " She noticed a not so small hord shambling towards her. Forming the seals quickly, her body would be wrapped up in the vissage of an old wooden statue that spread from the center of her chest to protect her entire body. Goodness she loved ninjutsu. 

What came next would be impressive to basically anyone who hadn't seen it before. She danced about the battlefield--can we even really call it a battlefield?! The zombies seemed pretty weak compared to her team, so it wasn't really much of a feat for them to be destoyed quickly.  Kiku was chasing them like sticks for Freyja's sake. 

Still. It's important to get this scene right so that we can have our epic moment of the day. The Kanzeon protection statue that coated Saya's body shifted through what we are absolutely going to be calling a battlefield. WIth each strike, The six arms of her jutsu cut thorugh zombies, sending bones flying. Consequently, Those flying bones almost defintely continued to rile up the girl turned wolf, keeping her zipping about the battlefield with treats going every which way. You gotta love it when a plan comes together. 

In a moment the powerful statue moved across the battlefield. She found a group of two zombies fighting over--was that daikos arm?! He really needed to keep a better grip on his body parts. Sure he can just sew them back on, a fact that Saya was quickly coming to accept, but still. It is unhygenic to have his arm eaten by zombies. A quick jab of two fingers into each zombies eyes was met with a hand placed perfectly to block her attack. What would happen next was a series of different two finger poke attacks towars the zombies eyes as they tried to one up each other. It was fruitless thankfully. It was only a matter of time before Saya realized that she could just use two hands. Or three. Daiko's arm floated through the air, Throwing by a powerful wood fist to land at his feet. 

The zombies weren't much of a threat. At the end of everything her team found themselves standing alone in the graveyard, with Kiku wagging her new tail excitedly. 

"I... Uh. Good job team?! What even is this place. It's so hecking weird. " 

(TWC 1276 so both missions done!

claiming 6500 ryo, 30 ap and 8 tickets for awoo and 8500 ryo, 40 ap, and 10 tickets for oh shit zombies with ap converted to 7k ryo

putting 961 towards jutsu ability reduction zone(2500/2500) previous training and the last 315 towards practiced performance with a human body (1186/1500) previous training exit topic closed after the gang finishes! )

Approved

"Ah, shit, fuck, oops, ah, sorry, whoops, fecking hell." Dana swore and apologized profusely as some members of her squad got caught in the Dark River Breaking Seal. Remarkably Daiko, the one who caught the brunt of the explosion, was more or less fine. It was somewhat worrying that, to Dana, missing all four limbs and turning into a spider was something she considered 'Fine' but, well, at least he was still alive? That was more than what could be said about most of their current company in the graveyard. Especially since Daiko managed to generate a massive black hole even whilst he was a spider. That was so cool! To be honest, Dana was a little jealous. She wished she could make massive spheres of devouring energy with just her eyes. Oh well, at least she could make her Vines with just a thought. That was definitely cooler than Daiko's really cool sphere because Dana had been taught it by her friend.

Then Saya, one of the few people Dana actually considered a friend in Kiri, summoned a massive wooden statue to deal with all the zombies! Dana's green eyes widened and almost seemed to glisten with wonder as she watched her friend dance around and destroy everything in her path. Mindless destruction was almost always an absolute joy to see. Dana wished more people could partake but, well, a lot of people didn't share Dana's don't-care attitude for some weird reason. Would the world be a better place if everyone was like her? Probably.

It was at this point that Dana realized she had done absolutely nothing to help in this big fight against the zombies! She'd thrown some explosions that missed everyone except Daiko and then stood and watched everyone else do all the work. Not one to allow herself to be shown up like this, Dana activated her Great Grasping Vines. Instantly, six flowers all sprouted out from various parts of her body and began to grow long sharp vines. With these vines, Dana turned into a big whirl of tentacles as she used the vines to begin spearing all the zombies still crawling out of the ground through the face. She was like that one Marvel character who Dana couldn't name because the universe would explode or something. Apparently, Dana's teammate Saya didn't get the memo because Dana could already see the cracks forming on the fringes of reality. Oh well, that was something she'd have to deal with later probably.

Eventually, all was calm and it was just the team left alone in the graveyard surrounded by corpses. That was fun! This was definitely another one of these weird dreams though, which meant Dana wouldn't be able to remember it when the time came for her to wake up.

WC: 466
TWC: 1785

Claims:
14200 Ryo (14000 mission Ryo + 200 Genin pay)
3500 Ryo (70 AP converted into Ryo)
18 Tickets
1050 words to complete Foo Dog Heads, other worse learned Here
700/750 words with 25% discount to upgrade Earth Flow Spears from B > A, previously trained Here

Daiko watched as wolf Kiku ran too and fro, grabbing up all the parts that had flown around in the explosion. Nice! She had brought them all back, and all of Daiko's tendrils had collected them up. Ah yes... All his organs were in their proper places. Very nice. As he finally got them stuck on, his limbs continued to dangle, twitching and contorting in a way where the threads that were associated with the arms were quickly bound up and tied together with the threads already in his body. To prevent his.. Well. Body from remaining useless, his insides quickly form the necessary hand-seals to activate Maintenice, and his limbs would begin to be stitched together, the skin pulled tautly. Nice. Dropping down from his awesome spider legs, which he would be using again (foreshadowing) Daiko stretches his arms, and does a quick little hammie stretch before watching Saya continue to rend and chop apart the zombies. Oh, that was pretty cool. Daiko wondered if he'd have time to get in on the action anymore. Taking a moment to consider, Daiko quickly weaves handseals, and a metal trap would open up on the ground around a horde of zombies. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the trap snapped shut, and it was 100% not a giant iron maiden shaped and designed like Saya doing a peace sign. It wasn't. It also wasn't the coach puppet, though that would've been cool. It was a sick-ass maneki neko that was Halloween-themed, with purple and orange accents. Very nice. 

Stretching out, Daiko takes a note of everything that was going on, and it looks like everyone is holding their own. Very nice. Dana was doing their thing, vibing and whatnot, and it seemed that Saya had finished chopping up the zombies. Kiku was still in a werewolf form, and Daiko wasn't entirely what to do about that. It was no matter, to be honest. Walking over to her at some point, he would continue to scratch her head. With nothing left to do, Daiko stands with the group for a moment before suddenly waking up. Fuck man, this was the second time this happened. Scratching his head, he checks the clock in his room and notes that it's still pretty late at night. Was all this really going on in a dream? Along with everything else, the dreams slowly get a little bit foggy. He wondered how awkward it would be if he had at some point brought up to Kiku that she was like... A wolf chasing around his dismembered organs. Considering that the last he had actually seen her in person it was a simple exercise in jutsu... That probably wouldn't be wise. He didn't know that if he had to drink less, or what... But this was getting a little bit freaky. 

[Exit]

[474]
{1782}

25% Max Stat Discount
[1579] + [296] [1875/1875] Earth Flow Spears A (Replacing Rock Pillar Spears)
[1480/2065] Imitation Black Hole

[Awoo! 750/750] +6000 Ryo, +20 AP, +8 Tickets
[Oh shit, Zombies [1000/1000] +8000 Ryo, +40 AP, +10 Tickets

Totals -- 
+14,000 Ryo 
+60 AP (Converted into Ryo.. 60 x 50 = 3000 Ryo)
+18 Tickets

Final Totals -- 
17,000 Ryo
18 Tickets

fixing ryo conversion: 70 ap=3500 ryo not 7k, editing total to reflect