#zokkine

[frostahesmegabite]

A Real Pilgrim's Bounty!

Nostalgic/Starve - Day 5 - DWC ( @daily-writing-challenge ) [ I have to make massive content warnings for blood, gore and just fucked up shit in general with this story. So, please, if you are squeamish, do not read it as it is Nightmare Fuel for Megahes. ] It was that time of year, Pilgrim’s Bounty! Every year the Frostbite’s would come and gather at the Filthy Animal in Dalaran and throw a massive Pilgrim’s Bounty party! Megahes spared no expense in making foods and hiring a Bartender to make sure the drinks kept coming and for the largest part, what food wasn’t made by Naturasu or himself, was brought in via pot-luck style from the rest of the company! It was an amazing time where Megahes got to lavish his people with thanks for their efforts, for all the jobs well done. It really was a wonderful time and probably one of the most cheerful times outside of Winter’s Veil! Now that holiday popped off even more so! That aside, the thanks were past and so were the cheers and calls. Everyone around the table was eating and conversing with one another. Some of them laugh and tell stories. Darla and Scratch, down on their end laughing and flirting while in a way, trying to make it not obvious. Mako and Axl, flirting not only amongst themselves in clever and coy ways, but Axl making sure to spread the love via his Tentacles whenever he was caught toying with someone in some coy, flirtatious manner. Naturasu was of course her usual shameless self and any man at the table was free game with the flirts, heck, today was such a good day that she was even spreading it over the women too! Kappi and Zimble went back and forth, as much as a composed scout and mechanically gob-posedTech-lin can as they discussed jobs that went sideways and then jobs that went so well that they could orchestrate their efforts. Heck, even Attzi was here and she brought Dave, who, despite being undead, did his best to fit in food wise and brought some specialty Stuffed Shrooms which had apparently been some Forsaken Specialty! He wasn’t even sure how, but they managed to bring Maeris into the mix who absolutely refused to keep referring to Zokkine as a ‘New Hire’ despite having worked with him for nearly two years now. Megahes sat at the Head of the Table, smiling from ear to ear with a moment of pride at the group of people he’d somehow managed to hire or attract to revolve around the company in some fashion. Content to have watched for several minutes, he broke his gaze and leaned in, practically diving into the plate of Barbecued Ribs and Meat that… oddly enough reminded him of Ranek’s recipe! Perhaps Naturasu meant it as a surprise of some sort?

Eat up Sugar, don’t starve yaself now. Whatever it was, it made Mega feel absolutely ravenous as if he hadn’t just eaten several plates of food and junk that’d he’d definitely hate himself for later that night or the next day. He needed more. Faster and faster, biting into the food so haphazardly that he was nearly biting at his own fingers as he broke bones and chomped on them till swallowable all while stripping away meat and licking the sauce from his fingers. It was until someone grabbed him and gave him a hard shake that he realized someone was not only talking to him, but the whole table was looking at him in absolute horror. That’s when it registered. The food wasn’t quite food… It was his company. His friends. The men and women he hired and who had saved his life several times over. Their bodies had been torn through and ravaged as if by a pack of wild animals, only, the only creature who’d done it was… “Boss Megahes.” The cold mechanical voice of Zimble shook him hard and he’d realized he was perched on the table, shirt torn open and bloody handprints all over him as the people he tore into probably tried to fight him off to no avail. Naturasu and others, faces he couldn’t place now spun around him at the horror as he looked down at what he had been eating. His stomach bulged hard, curdling as his stomach lining most likely burst in an effort to fit everything. He looked more akin to a feral monster than himself but… that quickly went out the window as he realized he had been eating on… on… his vision blurred hard and he went to scramble backwards at the revelation that he had been eating what looked to be a Troll and Goblin half breed child… Was that his… His…? Immediately he began to scream as panic kicked in! What had he done?! He’d shove his hand into his mouth in an effort to induce vomiting but nothing came! His stomach churned and he’d grab at it, feeling his innards violently roil and roll. Something moved inside of him and his panic went haywire, looking up at Nat and Zimble both as he tried to crawl away while also holding himself. They were on him in no time at all. Naturasu holding him down as she became hard, indifferent, to him. There was no love there, no hate either… pure clinical treatment like some ward doctor. “Zimble. You have to get them out of there…” “Of course, Miss Nat.” Suddenly, a musical tune begins to play, one Megahes immediately knew and for the first time ever, it made fear sink so deep into his bones that all he could do was start to choke. Zimble came to Megahes’ side, looking him in the eye with his own robotic oculus. “Clear your mind Mister Frostbite. I have detected elevated levels of stress, fear, and corruption in your system… we will purge this for you.” Zimble’s mechanical arm lifted, its gears and plates shifting as wire’s were pulled and rearranged. What had once been a hand was now a power saw, aiming to come down on top of Mega’s body-filled gut.

"Just allow the Nostalgic Melodies lure you onto Easy Street…" Megahes immediately bolted upright from his bed, screaming in horror unlike what he had had just nights ago with his Legion PTSD. This was so real to him. Not a memory, obviously, but it was so real. He could smell the metal from Zimble’s Tech’lin augmentations. He could smell the alcohol and hear the laughter and even taste Ranek’s sauce! Poor Naturasu, she’d nearly been thrown from the bed entirely as she’d been trying to wake him up from a Nightmare that did not allow him to come to. His hands burned hot and hard with white fire with the mixture of his Holy and Fire Magic. Fire burning blisters just as quickly as the Light was healing him. His skin bubbled and flattened in weird patches all over until he realized he was under no threat here. Naturasu didn’t dare try to wrestle him down, not like this. Not when he was like this. Mega’s powers slowly faded, and there in the Zocolo, they were left in the dark of their home and he’d crumble to the floor. “ImsorryImsorryImsorryImsorryImsorry…” It was all the man could manage as his knees his the floor and like the darkness that enveloped their bedroom, Nat too, was on him just as quickly, offering sweet shushes and calming words as her fingers ran through his sweat soaked hair. It’d take some time before he’d calm from this and by morning, the two were sitting in the corner of their bedroom, Mega’s spine shoved into the point between two walls, as he explained his dream over coffee with her. ….. Unbeknownst to either, a dark blob of ooze thrums under the mattress, slowly churning as its form shrunk more and more, until finally, nothing was left in the slightest. Somewhere, in the dark, a heavy laugh comes as if another victory has been achieved.

Audio made on Kapwing

[ I borrowed Tim Curry's Laugh from Hexus in Ferngully! All credit goes to that amazing man! ]

[frostbitecontingent]

“Communications aren’t a tea party.”

“It’s come to Director Zimble’s attention that the FBC requires an advancement and upgrade on our communication infrastructure. That being said, he put out a notice for aid among Security Personnel and whoever else would be willing to offer aid and they went out to the Zoram Strand (Ashenvale) area to finish setting up what he’d already begun. From reports, the technicians that were sent out before hand had hit some resistance with resilient Naga forces that were refusing to vacate the area due to the nearby ruins.”

[ The above image is submitted with the report as proof as to who came to the venture for insurance and payroll purposes. ]  “Let it be known that Attzi @attzi-gearburst​, Dave ( @x-amanita-virosa-x​ ), Murphy (Alt of @frostahesmegabite​ ), Director Zimble and Zokkine arrived on the scene to begin operations. Side note for insurance, Murphy and his Fel Corrupted Devilsaur, Stomper, are not permanent fixtures on the payroll, merely mercenaries that I hired to take my place while I was stuck here on business at the office.” “They were targetted before they could even make it to the array and in short order eliminated the resistance between their arrival point and the communications tower. With a small spat of Combat, Director Zimble learned that while Dave does make for a fantastic cheerleader and support role with his spells, combat was not his forte. Dave later proved himself to be quite capable in his cheering efforts as it kept spirits high as the team tried to make repairs to the tower and to get it started, which thankfully they were able to accomplish.” “Once completed and online, a Naga Summoner apparently summoned up the dead remnants of some Hydra from the ruins below, forcing our team into combat once again. Zokkine and Dave found it to be quite the bonding experience from what I understand and Attzi and Murphy both did quite the job assaulting the Hydra and its Summoner into proper death and/or retreat. The tower now is surrounded by an energy field that should help keep future assault attempts ineffective.” “Financial Note. Keep some funds set aside in case Attzi or Dave require outfit or gear compensation. To my understanding, there was a stretch of quick sand that may have ruined a pair of very expensive boots and Dave took a Trident to the Back. He’s fine, but, his clothes may not be.”

[frostbitecontingent]

Meeting The Company

“On Last Night’s Episode of.... F. B. C.!” The Frostbite Contingent travelled to Borean Tundra to deliver a supply of materials to an organization known as the SotF (Sanctum of the Forbidden). Upon arrival, they found various Horde Troops putting down rogue Scourge remnants via the blade and flame. It didn’t take long before their arrival became noticed as a Forsaken Warlock named Caeris Dorn welcomed the group and invited them in to the Warsong Hold where trophies of slain Scourge hung from the rafters and chains as a warning to any would-be intelligent Scourge members who sought to attack the place.

(Visual Reference for Caeris Dorn.)

From there the materials gathered from Caer Darrow and Seradane were delivered to the smithing area below for inspect as Caeris Dorn went to procure the SotF Leader. Regaining their warmth due to the massive fires and thanks to the Zeppelin bay doors being closed to keep the cold warded, the FBC waited no longer than a handful of minutes before their soon to be business partners would arrive. Calling from above in Ambush, came the voice of Dinthoqaf the Defiler, hidden and true leader of the Sanctum. Caeris Dorn had been a puppet masquerading as the SotF’s leader while Dinthoqaf pulled the strings and these strings were many. At this point numerous abominations began to appear and slip into being only to decend on the FBC personnel. (Top row, left to right: Kappi ( @advancedscoutkappi​ ), Attzi ( @attzi-gearburst​ ), Makosubi, Zimble, and Megahes ( @frostahesmegabite​ ). Bottom Row, Left to Right: Zokkine, Naturasu, Dave ( @gnomeskillet​ [Sorry, I kept trying to plug your other account but it wouldn’t let me!], and Atreyzu.) took up positions doing everything they could to find back wave after wave of enemy that was set to swallow them hole simply by outnumbering them rather than by brute strength or tactic.

During the chaos, Dinthoqaf the Defiler made his escape, taking the very materials that the FBC had unbeknownst collected for him. What they were to be used for, unknown and where they went? Also lost. Retreat was now in order and the company made for the lone elevator shaft in the back of the room as forces began to sweep from the lower floors down and around them in an effort to cut them off. With the company on the elevator, Megahes gave the directive to Security Director Zimble to get everyone to the roof and to portal them home where immediately Megahes used his magic to create a barrier seal, locking everyone inside of the elevator while also keeping everything else out while he stayed behind. The Defiler had came for him and his mind had been made up. Megahes was soon overwhelmed by the enemy and the company, refusing the leave him behind, descended into the madness once more only to find a floor covered in the corpses of abominations they’d killed and a few small belongings that had been dropped by their boss. Megahes is now missing and in anger, pain, and sorrow, the company gathered what little evidence they could acquire before leaving to head for home to lick their wounds, nursing their pride all while vowing to find where their boss was taken.

[frostbitecontingent]

Into the Depths pt. 1

Last Night, another resource hunt occured with a team consisting of several Security Personnel, lead by their Director, Zimble. The Mission; “Delve into the ruins of Scholomance to acquire a power source that had been absconded by renegade Cult of the Damned forces.” The old time haunt which had been previously cleared by Adventurers some time before, has supposedly become re-inhabited thanks to the wild resurgence of the Scourge after the events in Capital Cities and the World as a whole due to the ‘whole Shadowlands and Sylvanas’ incident. Our team consists of Axl, Darla, Zokkine, & Director Zimble. A competent and strong team to be sure, these four arrived in Scholomance to discover that their entry wasn’t barred and the place was being well kept, despite the spider webs and dripping wax everywhere. Once inside the Main Entry way, a trap had been triggered, assaulting our Team with a barrage of Sound, Magic and Light (Not the fancy holy stuff, just white light!), rendering them all unconcious. Once they awoke, they found themselves cast into the Library below amongst a sea of copies of themselves.

The central area around them lit from above, giving just enough light to see some of the bookshelves and an unending surrounding of clones that remained stationary in every way. Not a breath taken from a single individual outside of our team. In quick succession, they devised that these things were not responding to pain as Darla crushed a few with her Mace and Zimble set fire to them with his Flamethrower. It wasn’t until something moved in the darkness, swirling the mass of bodies around them, that a path was opened up. Much to their benefit or perhaps downfall, Zimbles flamethrower lit aflame a new path, allowing Zokkine and Himself to cut through the field just to discover that their gob clones were infact more akin to flesh wearing mannequins. Their faces slightly off, eyes to sunken in. Ears to large or small or in just the wrong spot. Teeth to big, mouths to small or even lips pulled far to tight. The flesh was only part of the problem however as what lay beneath was nothing better than plastic and metal frames. Someone or something had taken painstaking amounts of time to create such a sea of not-quite-right replicas. Another surge of motion and bodies occured, leaving our team with no way back to where they started but with it, something new called from the dark. 

https://soundcloud.com/soundeffectsonly/monster-scream-1

The monster had locked onto them and began to tear through their copies, sending them flying through the dark and it was only by sheer luck (Or possibly design) that they made it out of the room, where a barrier had been put into place to keep the monstrosity from giving chase by someone other than our team. Whatever this thing was, it was learning quick as the Gobbequins were beginning to move and sound like our team... or so it was believed. Whispers of their own voices began to repeat in their ears as they trekked on into the depths. Whispers that were making them more and more on edge, brief brushes of flesh to their flesh, only when there had been nothing there to touch them... Another stretch of hall and another room found, our team finds themselves amongst yet more copies. These far less perfect than the room above as it was evident the flesh upon these was still healing from their stitchings and placements. Seams not quite sealed yet, but lifeless all the same. The team had a simple route, simply walk to the other side of the room which, is what they aimed to do. But candy is candy and sweets can’t be ignored, especially to a treasure hunting team when they find a small lockbox tucked away in another direction... Zimble volunteered to go for it, only for Zokkine to offer to teleport him over, which worked perfectly! If Zimble wanted to appear eight feet off the floor and upside down over this table and lockbox. He came crashing down, busting the table with ease due to his many technological prosthetics and like any well made trap, this certainly set off the alarm. 

https://soundcloud.com/honzakourimsky/monster-scream-sample

The copies within all began to screech and trill, their seams coming apart as blood... and something living within it, began to flow and pool around on the floor. With fear setting in all the deeper, our team pulled Zimble back and they made for the door as leech-like apparitions tried to root themselves into the legs and feet of our party and much like the room before... a runic barrier also kept this blood at bay from joining our team in the next. Careful construction for a ragtag group of Cultists it would seem... What lies beyond for our team? Will they be able to make it to this alleged power source and acquire it or will their copies find a way to replicate what they’re meant to mirror? We’ll see!

[frostbitecontingent]

Busy Week!

We’ve had a busy week over here in the FBC and we’re playing a bit of catch up for you in this post today! First off, we wanna welcome a new person into our ranks! Dead Dave! They’re an amazingly talented Tailor and Enchanter who’s joining our ranks as an Acquisitions Expert who specializes in acquiring much needed goods for his fellow Forsaken and Undeaders! ( I’d give his link, but I’m missing it at the moment, I’ll update this once I have it cause I know there is one! D: )

On top of that, we had a team consisting of Security Personnel (Darla, Axl, & Zokkine) and their Director (Zimble), delve into Scholomance to go after a magical power source that some renegade Cult of the Damned individuals ran off with! Once they got inside, they discovered that all of the Cultists were MIA but the labyrinth had been filled with worse horrors. Our team had been knocked out by security measures, only to discover the place full of hundreds upon hundreds of copies of themselves. Some of them quite convincing and others so far off they were near unrecognizable. No matter what though, something was off with each and every one of them to an eerie degree. ( Automatonophobia intended to be felt when looking at them.) These horrors didn’t move at first, at least not when looked at and in short order, the Security team found themselves hearing their own voices coming from their copies or slight grazes and brushes of hands touching their own or somewhere on their body as they tried to get through the sea of copies. Later and deeper in the labyrinth, they discovered that these bodies were being put together similar to mannequins and with numerous skin suits and hair pieces harvested from... gold knows where, in an effort to create more and more convincing copies of our team.

It wasn’t until they reached the inner most sanctum that they discovered four exact duplicates that were able to copy their voices and abilities and characteristics, even down to their personalities!  It was these four copies that it was discovered that they were nothing more than finger puppets connected to a large fetid abomination that had the power source tucked away on top of it, which it was feeding off of in an effort to power its efforts to make dopplegangers. Zokkine, in a quick effort to retrieve the power source, tried to teleport it over and while this succeeded, his numerous teleportation skills throughout the facility had been taken into account and the Source he now held also worked similar to a glue trap, sticking to his hands as a tether began to reel him in towards the stand, where large, razor sharp teeth sought to pull him in to devour him while also reclaiming the source. Luckily, our team kept their heads on and cut the tether, which ultimately led to the abomination starving to death in quick succession as it no longer had a source to feed off of properly. Having marked the mission as completed proper, they have now left the Labyrinth and its dead copies behind via portal, to take their prize back to Megahes for analysis.

[zokkine-flipbolt]

Morning’s Haze

A warm fog hung low over the city of Ratchet, the morning sun turning it into a gentle orange haze. Only sounds that could be heard was the quiet movements of the local dockworkers that mozied about as their work started for the day. A Monday morning that met some with a similar haze as the previous night's partying caught up with them. Shopkeepers too not yet turning their signs and opening their doors to the general public, making ready their shops and venues for the low traffic to come.

The fog seemed to stretch throughout the city, thick enough that it forced the docks to turn on their brightest lanterns for the incoming ships to make a safe docking. A mist that made humid any local residents abode that had so naively kept their windows open for the previous night's cool night air.

A humidity that to an untrained nose would feel like they were drowning, suffocating under their own lungs. Like the ocean itself was rising up to drown any visitors who were not yet used to the warm air of the barrens' port town.

Like it was drowning a foreigner in a sea of his own guilt. Guilt that was made physical by the night's cool air and the warm land. A guilt that weighed on a mage's chest like a boulder, too heavy to be teleported away.

A mage that was no longer a mage.

Zokkine shot up coated in a heavy sweat, his lungs gasping for air that seemed to be sparse in the humidity that hung in the room. Leaning up, he'd run a hand over his ear, brushing back the soaked locks away from his forehead. Reaching a hand out while his other held the growing headache that started, he'd find- nothing.

There was no glass of water that could be formed from pulling the arcane from the ley lines. There was no ley lines for him to pull from.

For a moment there was a disorientation, perhaps he was out of mana. Perhaps he was still dreaming. Maybe the ley lines were different here, a subtle change that he simply needed to reach for in a different way. The aching pain in his shoulder could even be what is distracting him from grasping that magic.

Once again, as time and time before he'd try to pull from the local ley lines that he had so many, many times before done. Only for there to be nothing. There was nothing to pull from. Nothing to create.

The heavy realization gradually weighed down as he pulled his hand back, looking at it as if it was a disembodied limb. As if it wasn't his own.

Guilt. Loss. Painful realization struck him in his gut as he'd in so quick of a time formed a fist, letting it fly to the ground. Knuckles meeting hard flooring, uncaring of the shooting pain that ran up his arm. Again. And again. Fist meeting floor as the now broken mage let out the inner turmoil that raged like a tempest in his own heart. A raging storm that now was breaking itself out.

After a time, he'd rest his hand on the ground as his labored breath ravaged his lungs, gasping for air as if struggling to keep up with his own excursion. Looking up towards the stairs, he had, for a moment, worried that he had accidentally awoken his good friend Irvitz, a fellow mage of glittery sparkle.

A fellow mage.

A word he could no longer call himself.

His eyes pulled to the tiara that Attzi had given him. The craftmanship was on par with his own tiara, a very high quality and choice materials. Evident of her father's craft. The enchantments however, he recognized them as being from Tony. Something of which he was surprised at, knowing the man to have been rather avoidant of both social interaction and giving aid to those who he didn't deem important enough. It almost made him feel honored. He always told the other mage that he's got the talent, if he'd simply be a bit more tactful to others he'd go very, very far.

Other mage...

Was he a mage if he needed such an aid? Was he one if he was so completely reliable on an outside battery?

No...how could he be...

Ever since he felt that cut, the ley lines being severed from his very being he's felt as a man without worth. The very thing he had been trained since a child to do, he was no longer capable of. The very talent he had prided himself to have, no longer was within his grasp. A talent lost due to his own naive sacrifice to save a woman that he cared so deeply about.

A woman who had left him, a relationship that he had so easily neglected.

The waning adrenaline gave way to the now dull throbing in his hand, as well as the now growing ache that graced in his bad shoulder. Pushing himself up off the bed, he'd pull himself to head outside. The morning warm air felt cool to the man, shirt still damp from his nightmare. The world seemed to move, uncaring of his inner turmoil, the strife that afflicted him holding no baring on the port town.

It moved along without care the man stood there, watching it go by.

He took in a deep breath, eyes closing as he tried to think with no thoughts coming forth. Only the crushing strife that resonated deep in his soul. The swirl of thoughts that dove deeply back making him wonder where did he go wrong? Where was that pivotal moment that made everything take that downward spiral?

Where was that step that he had taken to make that fumble?

Minutes. Perhaps hours went by before the mage opened his eyes again to see the fog having lifted, the town itself now bustling with afternoon movement. The beaming barrens sun having warmed him enough to have evaporated whatever strife had afflicted him the night before. The air, warm albeit drier with the now mid afternoon sun that bared down to the town.

It'd be best he headed back in, lest his good friend too starts to worry about him as well.

As he turned towards the door he found his hand swollen from the repeated abuse it had been subjected to just hours before. With a thinned lip and his other hand, he'd open the door to return to the bed that Irv had so nicely conjured for him to rest in. His attempt to conjure ice being the final stab in his heart for the morning hours.

A reminder that he was no longer a man of magic. He was now a man of nothing.