⇨ SHINIES

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone who wants to pick on Tamatoa.
When: Day 45 onward.
Where: In and around Tamatoa's lair.
What: People getting up into Tamatoa's grill for some reason or another. Anybody is welcome to participate, but please communicate with the mods first so that we can discuss how to set up the thread and what your characters are attempting. Tamatoa may attack people outside of his lair, too, but you'll need some kind of narrative hook to prevent him from just eating you if you want to engage him that way.
Warnings: Crab related violence.

TAMATOA'S LAIR↴ Tamatoa lives in a giant clam shell, inside of a mysterious cave that lies about a half hour's swim away from the city. This is also where he keeps most of his loot - either stashed somewhere in the lair or (mostly) sitting on the back of his shell. He hangs out in this cave most of the time he isn't stomping around looking for sunken ships. Tamatoa is gigantic. In fact, he's even a bit more gigantic than he appeared in the movie Moana - and those combating him will find that he also seems to be somewhat resistant to magical affects. A human is the relative size of a pen cap in his claws, and he could crush a normal person will trivial effort. He could also pretty easily toss them into his giant mouth - which he usually will, given the opportunity. Facing Tamatoa could come with great reward, but with equally high risk.

Comments

[pipers_son]

[Times like this, he really loves the people he works with.]

[Doing his best to stay out of sight with his colorful lower half- not to mention his hair, frankly- Joker starts to lead the two other sneaks with him as Ash does her best to get Tamatoa’s attention.]

[npcarnival]

[Tamatoa looks up, and then scuttles around in a couple circles, looking for the source of the sound. It probably doesn't make sneaking any easier at the moment, but eventually his stalked eyes will settle on Ash.]

What? Who's there?

[kingsroads]

[ Strange swims into Tamatoa's view as well, muttering an incantation under his breath, eyes looking down at the sandy ocean floor instead of up at Tamatoa. Once he finishes the incantation, he looks from Ash to Tamatoa with a wide grin.

Time to make sneaking a bit easier as Strange magics some sand off of the floor, having the particles hover in the air for a moment. ]

Only a few magicians come to take on the fearsome Tamatoa.

[ With a flick of his wrist, the sand shoots in Tamatoa's direction, aiming for the general vicinity of his eyes and mouth. ]

[amusicaladventure]

Aww, Strange! I wanted to hear him sing! I actually hear he's pretty good at it!

[Well, they could have planned this better, but hey, if they're getting right into it they're getting right into it. Ash slings her guitar off her shoulders and into her hand, flicking her claws over the strings to open the battle with a triumphant peal of music.]

[Then she launches her opening salvo -- not a magical attack, but a shot fired straight across the crab's pride.]

Not as good as ME, though!

gently drops a late tag here to confirm i'm not dead

[pullingamiko]

[It's mostly excitement that's kept Miko quiet thus far - and a vague understanding that, in fact, she probably should not be yelling within earshot of the giant murdercrab.

She sticks close behind Joker when he sets out, hesitating when she's briefly distracted herself by the show of magic (and also guitar-playing). Then she reminds herself what she's supposed to be doing and speeds up to stay by Joker.]

[pipers_son]

[The sand is indeed very helpful! At least so Joker wants to think, anyway, carefully waiting in place after making sure that his two accomplices are right behind him and flashing a grin at Miki. For a second, he stays in one hiding place in particular, watching the giant crab to make sure that his attention is on Strange and Ash.]

[And if there’s any scabs or open spots on the crab for his knife to get into, well, he’s looking out for those too, of course.]

[npcarnival]

[It's hard to hurt Tamatoa's pride when he honestly has no idea what's going on right now, besides the obvious: some mers are here to get in his grill, as usual. And one of them has a guitar? That's cool.

One trouble with utilizing the sand is that it's actually a pretty large distance from the ground, and so from the moment Strange lifts it to the moment it makes it up to the crab's face, he's already weaved backwards looking bemused. He waves his claw in front of his face as if he's blowing away some smoke.]

Excuse me, but if you are going to interrupt my evening some some kind of heist, you could at the very least introduce yourselves.

[He starts thrashing his giant claw down at Ash and Strange, its huge circumference making it pretty hard to dodge and every strike kicking up stand and sending powerful currents through the water.

As for scabs or openings, not really. That dagger is like a thumb-tack to a creature this size - the only spots that seem obvious are his eyes, or maybe his tongue.]

[kingsroads]

[ Ah yes. That's a tall crab. It's amazing how he keeps forgetting that.

The problem with Strange's magic is that a: incantations and b: he knows absolutely no defensive spells whatsoever. So when Tamatoa's claw hits the ground, it smacks right into him, pushing Strange shooting upwards through the water. Ouch.

Strange wants to keep using the ground and sand as much as possible because it's an entirely different matter to work with plants. ]

My name is Jonathan Strange, English magician, [ he remarks, as he tries to right himself to look back at the ground and Ash as fast as his little goldfish body can. He's still swimming in the water, somewhere vaguely near Tamatoa's midsection. Since shooting the sand up didn't do anything, perhaps he could form a hand out of it and grab one of Tamatoa's legs. Topple the crab over before he gets whacked with a claw again.

Of course, in order to best do this, he needed to be back on the ground. So, maybe keep him talking while Ash does her thing? Strange just tries to swim back down towards the ground as fast as his little goldfish body could muster. ]

And this is certainly not a heist! I've got plenty of knick-knacks on my own, as is.

[ it's just a damn shame all those metaphorical points went into magic and not diplomacy. ]

[amusicaladventure]

[Ash shoots backwards, out of range of Tamatoa's claws like a tasty piece of bait, her tail flipping in delight. The girl legitimately thinks she's invincible, so long as he has her music.]

Call me Ash, but you're the one who's gonna burn!

[They're just here to distract and delay, so they needed to have the speed and agility not to get hit. That called for the kind of battle music that's actually battle music! Ash hit three notes on her guitar before backup bass, drums, and guitar thundered in to fill the water with sound, and herself and Strange with those necessary graces to speed them up.]

The wind blows hard in December
Our last fight, do you remember?
Counting the days, since we left
You and I, slipping away!

[And if she could bait Tamatoa into singing the other part of the song, well, victory would pretty much be theirs, right?]

[pipers_son]

[Hey, have you ever stepped on a thumbtack? Those can be a motherfucker. Although it should be said that… most people aren’t covered in a tough bit of natural armor. Pity.]

[Still, Joker rolls with it, grimacing and glad for what cover they’re hiding behind- that takes the brunt of the currents. After waiting to make sure that another one isn’t incoming and things have calmed down a little water-wise, he hastily gestures to Sherlock and Miko as he quickly tries to get up to the glitter-laden shell.]