daybreakacademy | plague upon the world (it's these two gremlins)

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plague upon the world (it's these two gremlins)

WHO: Ellie, Kano, and you~
WHERE: Lumière dorms, around campus
WHEN: first week of school
WHAT: crickets!!!
WARNINGS: crickets... nothing else foreseen, but will edit if necessary!
NOTES: this is a joint post with Ellie and Kano, so you might be tagged back by either of them or both, please let us know if you have a preference!

i. Lumière Dormitory lobby
[ Twenty centimeters isn't a lot. The length of the box's edge just barely exceeds the length of Kano's palm as he carries his package into the dorms, giving it a little shake next to his ear but unable to hear anything inside. The box is pretty light, too... maybe they got scammed?

The only way to find out is to open the box, and Ellie's right there to stab her switchblade into the top of the box and pull down sharply to cut open the box—-

Do you know how many crickets fit inside a 20x20x20 cm box? Originally, around 500.

Now, there's only a couple dozen left, and dwindling every passing second the two of them stare at the plague they've unleashed upon the dorm. ]

ii. cricket wrangling, inside and around the dorm
[ You learn to stop screaming real quick when every time you open your mouth, you find a cricket or two inside, so it's masks on and sleeves pushed up like this isn't shady at all, haha, this isn't their fault. Anyways, stand there, right there, and DON'T. MOVE. Just stay still while the two of them... well, it's no butterfly net, but they've got fly swatters and two socks full of crickets that they can tie off when they're full and— ]

I SAID DON'T MOVE!!

[ If you get smacked in the face, you've already gotten fair warning, now take off your socks and make yourself useful. ]

iii. on the waaaaay other side of campus
[ They pretend they have nothing to do with the fact that an exterminator is being called to exorcise the dorms. They have nothing to do with that? They've been here the entire time, camped out in front of one of the buildings with their little stall— a table dragged out from somewhere, two folding chairs, a sign leaning against the front of the table reading:

€1 EACH
IF YOU TOUCH IT, YOU BUY IT
IF IT TOUCHES YOU, YOU BUY IT
NO REFUNDS
ALL PROCEEDS GO TO THE 7 SEVENS

[ and a megaphone that's a mistake to allow in Kano's hands as he shouts right into it. ]

Crepes! Get your crepes here~! Chocolate clusters and liquid luck! There's a surprise in every bite! Purchase one of each and receive a complimentary ~*~*mystery box*~*~! What a deal! Don't pass this chance up!!

[ The ~*~*~mystery boxes*~*~ are packed up nice and neat on one end of the table, with the rest of it being a spread of little chocolate drops on a tray (they twitch once in a while, but ignore that), several dozen bottles of something dark brown (the liquid sloshes around once in a while, but ignore that), and Ellie currently taking her turn at working the crepe station, once in a while sprinkling in some of the """secret ingredient""" (some of which might escape and leap onto your face and chirp, but iGNORE THAT) ]

wc.
[ For anything else, ping

northpaws or

birdseed! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Even God can't save him now.

Kano takes the webshooter and holds it in his hands, keeping which end is which in mind so he doesn't accidentally shoot himself in the chest or anything. He pulls his sleeve back and slides it over his wrist and contemplates just jabbing at the button and going to down blasting crickets out of the air, but, hmm... ]

What sort of settings are there? Something more concentrated, or more wide-spread? What about stickiness?

[ That would probably be a bad idea. Not the worst idea, since the left shooter is set to standard web strands? But. not great.

Peter leans over, his right wrist extended so he can show him on this side. ]

All of 'em, yeah. See those buttons on the side? You use 'em like sliders to set it up or down.

[ It's easy to use, which is good, especially for something homebrewed. Let's see... He fiddles with the buttons to set it to maximum spread and maximum sticky. Max everything else, because there's no need to know what each button does when he can just go full force.

Alright, time to die, crickets!!

He points his wrist at the floor in the center of the room and sets it off. ]

[ It's pretty intuitive honestly - built by a fifteen-year-old so it sort of has to be? But. uh. That's. Peter reaches out once he realizes what Kano's doing. ]

No, wait, that's a really bad idea --

[ Too late for him to help. Kano sure is going to set off an explosion of webbing everywhere. Starting with the two of them. ]

[ A more concise warning would have been to yell "STOP" and smack the thing out of his hands, but it's definitely too late for any of that because the force of the blast is enough to knock him off his feet, a mess of sticky white getting underfoot and all over their clothes and- the recoil sends him stumbling backwards, landing hard on the ground and maybe the world will be saved because he tries to sit back up and he can't. ]

...Whoa.

[ What else can he say.....

At least he was successful in capturing some of the crickets in the blast zone. He just also caught the two of them and now crickets are getting stuck to their arms and legs and faces so you're welcome.

[ GODDAMMIT KANO. Peter somehow ends up sort of stuck to the wall? Like right where the floor meets the wall and it's really, really hard to work himself free, even with his super strength.

Also there's a cricket stuck to his face now. THANKS. ]

Like I was saying, you really don't want to set everything up to max all at once.

[ The webshooter is also busted now, thanks. Good thing Peter can fix it. ]

Haha, right, right~ Lesson learned~! Maybe a safety feature can be considered in the future?

[ Or just never let Kano touch anything of his again.

At least he's wearing a jacket and can sort of wiggle his way out of it and get off the floor. His pants... well... His illusions are helpful here, making it look like he's still wearing them while he's actually standing around in his boxers, nobody has to know otherwise. ]

I wouldn't be able to walk over to where you are... Can you get free by yourself?

[ Wriggle. Wriggle ... He can sort of push off the wall here, but. Uh. He's going to crack the wall before he gets the webs unstuck. The paint is already starting to peel where he's pushing off. Did he mention being really strong yet? Because here he is, being really stupidly strong. ]

I think I'm gonna put a hole in the wall if I do.

[ Dammit. He slumps back. ]

The good news is that these things will dissolve in two hours. The, uh, bad news is that they're gonna dissolve in two hours.

[ Yeah, don't do that, they don't need to make any escape routes for the crickets. As of right now, everything is more or less self-contained, and they don't even need anybody to guard the doors because anybody walking into this hell hole would turn around right away without a second glance.

Kano sits down on his tiny little non-sticky island that is his jacket. He can camp here for two hours, no biggy, but Peter's going to get a neck cramp at this rate and those are really a pain in the ass. ]

Does it dissolve faster with anything? Water? I could spit on you?

[ Oh my god Kano. If you spit on him this budding friendship is over. He wriggles again, but he is just in such an awkward position that he can't really get free. ]

I've got a solvent in my room, but. It's, y'know, in my room.

[ He eyes the door that they completely webbed over. ]

[ He just wants to help :( ]

What to do, what to do~ Aah, this really is a conundrum~ We could wait it out two hours, but the crickets would also be free again, so we'd have to start all over...

[ Honestly, it's an option. Just not the most ideal. ]

Ah-!

[ AN IDEA. Brace yourself for this, Peter. ]

Of course~! You have your other webshooter, don't you? Why don't you try blasting yourself free from the wall? The web would seal up any damages that might occur, so you wouldn't have to worry about bringing the building down with you!

[ That's ... not the worst idea? Peter's real problem here is leverage, not strength, so if he could grab onto the right spot he could probably wiggle himself loose? Of course he could also bring down part of the ceiling but. Okay, let's try this. ]

Yeah, okay, that might actually work. Lemme just...

[ He awkwardly works his other wrist free, aiming it up at the ceiling. ]

[ He's actually going to try it... How good, it's nice every year when there's a wave of new students still willing to try out Kano's ideas, and he appreciates that a lot, scooting back a little so he can lift his jacket in front of his face like a shield just in case everything explodes all over again. He'll watch through a little button hole or something. ]

I'm rooting for you~

[ It's still set to webs, technically, but this should still work? He just angles his shot so that the webs go kind of sideways, adding thickness to the strand without spreading out all over the place.

So far so good. He tugs on it. Tugs harder. Tugs really really hard ... and slowly he starts pulling himself away from the wall, though not without a huge amount of effort. Also, he's definitely stripping all the paint from the spots where the webs were, so. Oops.

But hey! He's like halfway free now. ]

[ After two seconds of nothing exploding, he feels safe enough to lower the jacket from his face and watch Peter... do whatever the heck he's doing. Trying to web as a rope to pull himself free, and it looks like it's working. ]

That's it! Just a little bit more!! You can do it~! I believe in you~!!

[ Without a crisis to steel himself for, Kano relaxes altogether, clapping his hands and cheering Peter on like a parent at a sports festival. ]

[ Gee, thanks Kano. He stops a moment, laughing. ]

Just gimme a minute, okay? I almost got it ...

[ A couple of the webs detach. Then a few more. Then - abruptly, all at once, Peter comes free. He does front a flip and ends up faceplanting directly into the floor. But! He's free now so this is a success all around. ]

Amazing~! You did it!! Whoo~!!!

[ A round of applause!! hands in the air and clapping above his head when Peter finally gets himself free and hopefully not stuck on the ground instead of the wall. Kano gets to his feet and looks around for somewhere that isn't very sticky- he's without socks, but he's still got his shoes on, so he gets two free steps before he's stuck anywhere. ]

Hehe~ It's like playing "the floor is lava," isn't it? Are you alright over there? Aah, let's see if we can find a notebook or some flyers around here, there should be something in the lobby we can use as stepping stones~

[ OOF. But he's free and that's something. Even if he kind of looks at the paint missing from the wall in dismay. Whoops. Uh. Maybe he can offer to fix it? Anyway. He manages to get back up onto his feet carefully. ]

Right, okay. Lemme find something.

[ Flyers maybe? Do they have anything advertising those crepes? ]

[ Maybe the dorms were overdue for a fresh coat of paint anyways, and this'll get the administration to get off their asses and do something about it. You know, yeah, who's to say the lobby isn't overdue for redecorating too? They're doing the school a favor here by remind them, really. ]

Let's see, let's see... Ah- the bulletin board is over there~ Since it's the start of term, I'll bet there's some old papers hung up, left from before break.

[ There's no crepe ads, but if he squints, that looks like a recruitment poster advertising for the lacrosse team? Unnecessary. Let's go with that one. ]

[ Thaaaat'll work. He grabs them off the board and comes back, handing him to Kano. He's pretty agile himself, so he manages to skip between safe spots reasonably well. ]

Here. Try that.

Perfect~

[ Sorry not sorry, lacrosse team, Kano folds the poster up into eighths and tears the paper up along the folds, trying to take long enough steps to cover the most distance as he places the scraps of paper down on the floor so create a path from where he is to the front door.

Too bad, we're out of paper now! ]

You seem to get around alright~ Can I leave you to collect the rest of the crickets? If you give me your room key, I'll go fetch the dissolving solution~

[ Should it be the other way around? No, of course not. ]

[ HEY. Hey. ]

These are your crickets, dude. And do you even know what the dissolving solution looks like?

A glass bottle with a label reading "dissolving solution" on it?

[ If Kano created a dissolving solution, he would label it appropriately as such!! ]

You can tell me what it looks like, right? I'll find it~

Nope. Not even close.

[ Peter is alternately not that cool and not quite that organized. It's in a spray bottle, okay, and it looks like Windex. ]

Just hold on, man. I'll go get it. And then I'll help you catch the crickets.

Hmm...

[ In Peter's shoes, Kano would have run away and never returned, but maybe he can take a chance with this kid. ]

Alright, but if you don't come back, know that you'll be breaking my heart! [ —no, wait, this holds more weight: ] And forfeiting the nameplate!! Do it for the name plate!!!

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