The Good, The Bad and The AU

[insertusername]

Old West AU

Welcome to Dry River. You're a long way from home partner. It’s the mid 1800s and this dusty little frontier town isn’t much of a landmark but the local color might make your stay interesting.

Cut some cards at the rowdy saloon. Stay at the inn and pay for a little company. Or take a job as a farmhand if you just need to make a quick buck and buy your ticket out of here.

Keep your nose clean though. Train robbers, card cheats and bandits have been known to pass through these parts. But you wouldn’t know nothin’ about that, would you?

It’s a Wild West AU. Establish yourself as a local or a stranger and rustle up some adventure or romance.

Top Level

with your western AU scene and see what kind of trouble darkens your door. Check out some old timey professions and their associated tropes if you need to.

Comment

with your western AU characters and make yourself less of a stranger ‘round these parts.

Comments

[holtzmann_ed]

She fished one out, priming it.

"Because I ain't walking into ambush junction without knocking first," she replied, nodding towards the door.

"You kick it in, I toss."

And for good measure, she retrieves another one.

[girlofclay]

Betty waited until she was free to move, then squared up against the door. She grabbed her revolver, looked at Holtzmann and counted down, silently mouthing the numbers three... two... one...

Then she threw a foot against the door.

[holtzmann_ed]

The second the door is opened, she's lobbing the grenades inside with a yelled out "special delivery!" before moving very quickly to clear the blast radius. When the grenades go, there's what they might call a commotion.

Namely, most of the shack detonating with the eerie screams of something trapped inside, resulting in a brief fountain of wood splinters and ectoplasm.

From her position, dived on the ground, she rolls over and punches the air.

"Now that's how it's supposed to work!"

[girlofclay]

Betty fell backwards as soon as she opened the door and then ducked sideways with Holtzmann, resisting the urge to flatten herself on the floor as getting up would be harder with the backpack and revolver to worry about. So with more space between her and the explosion she crouches down and grins.

"'Supposed to?'"

[holtzmann_ed]

She grins, sitting up, then pushing to her feet.

"Chain reaction. Get close enough it creates an exponential effect. And splatters 'em from here to Tulsa."

[girlofclay]

Betty stands up with her, and is now staring at her directly.

"You have an attractive brain yourself," she admits.

[holtzmann_ed]

She actually blushes, kicking the ground a bit.

"Bet you say that to all the girls with ectoplasmic detonators.

But she hefted her weapon, nodding towards the remains of the shack. "Bet you the dead-but-not-enough bastard we want is under that."

[girlofclay]

"So far," Betty confirms, bringing up her revolver to shoulder height, holding it high and ready.

"So you wanna go over and kick it, or what?"

[holtzmann_ed]

"Hell yes. It's way past time to bring an end to him."

She moved over to the remains of the shack, pulling pieces aside. Finally, the two of them working, she found what she was looking for - a double-doored hatch, leading downwards into the ground.

"Time for more fun."

She took hold of one of the doors.

[girlofclay]

Betty had her revolver holstered now, freeing up her arm for the clearing of the rubble. She took a wide stance, bracing herself, and took hold of the other door, looking up at Holtzmann and nodding.

[holtzmann_ed]

They heaved at the same moment, and then it was figuratively and probably literally out of their hands, the doors slamming open as a gust of long-stale air blasted forth with a roar on the wind it created, an unearthly howl of challenge, or something.

Unearthly, ungodly - pick an 'un', really. She closed one eye, leaning away from it. Then just yelled right back down the moment it was done.

She wasn't taking that shit from ectoplasm.

[girlofclay]

Betty glanced away so that Holztmann couldn't directly wee her laugh. But when she turns back her face was all business, her revolver drawn again.

"Are you done with that?"

[holtzmann_ed]

"Yeah, I'm good. Pasty little shits always try that."

She starts the descent, grumbling about that.

"Honestly, it's either that or the Big Speech, like I haven't heard all about the hell you're about to unleash on the living a half-dozen times before..."

[girlofclay]

Yessssss, there is going to be so much kissing later.

Betty follows her close behind, behind and slightly to the right with her revolver ready.

"As long as that's an either/or, I'll take the scream."

[holtzmann_ed]

"If it's both, it's trouble," she said. "Usually they've got the energy for one or the other. The ones that can do both are the ones who can do possessions and we do not want anything to do with that today."

She reached bottom and stepped off and...huh.

"These are coal seams," she said, quizzically, "and they've still got coal in them. Town must have given up on here fast when he moved in."

[girlofclay]

"Labor disputes," Betty said, her eyes front. "Nothing like the Mollies out east, but people got exploited all the same, tried to organise, mine fell into disuse. Henry moved in and the owners moved out, left the townspeople to it."

[holtzmann_ed]

She nodded, working her way down into the earth. It sounded...kind of predictable, all things said and done.

"Well, maybe they'll get to use 'em a bit after today, if we're..."

She stops. The corner they're approaching has very definite light around it.

"No chance you know what that is?"

[girlofclay]

Betty shrugs.

"This is your show, sweetheart. I'm just the support act."

[holtzmann_ed]

"Worth asking," she said, debating whether or not she should say something about that.

"I'm pretty sure the whole, um, precise perimeter creation thing graduated you to, um, either partner or accomplice? I do not know which."

She got curiously out of stride when trying for feeling.

She edged her head around the corner, looking out into what must have been the mine's central hub - and now was eerily lit by what were very clearly spirit candles. There was a sort of throne in the middle, and bags of what looked like stolen valuables arrayed around it.

And he was seated in the middle of it all, one of..ok, too many legs casually over the arm of the throne. He was blue in color, wreathed in what seemed like slow, lighter blue flames. He had been a lanky man in life, and these features were all elongated, creating an eight-foot-tall frame with long arms, extended fingers and very sharp-looking nails. The eyes were merely a black, flaming patch, and it was suddenly very clear why his underlings still obeyed him.

[girlofclay]

"Stage Manager," Betty said, stretching the metaphor a bit, amused as she was by the drop of stride.

But then she follows Holtzmann's look - a quick glance around the corner and then pulling back, leaning herself against the wall of the shaft.

She suddenly felt cold even for underground, and she looked very pale.

"Is that... usual then?"

[holtzmann_ed]

"Sometimes," she said, with a nod. "Not for good reasons."

She breathed out, deeply.

"So that's a Class Five," she said, swallowing thickly. "Can manifest fully and interact just like anything and they're fast and not nice about it." She shook her head.

"And they do that, to your head. Just kinda...yeah. The real bad ones can...get right in, make you see the thing you fear the most, make you see stuff that isn't there. So. Um...yeah, we're gonna want to turn him into goo very quick."

Claws or nightmares, really. Hurray for ghosts!

[girlofclay]

A pause, then, as Betty closes her eyes and tries not to think of all the different things she doesn't want to see right now. She said she'd alreayd seen a lot, but that didn't mean she wanted to see any of it again.

She checked her revolver again that it was ready, and looked up at Holtzmann with a nod.

"Let's do it, then."

[holtzmann_ed]

She clicks a switch on the gun, and it starts to make some very clear noises.

"Lets do it, yeah."

And she's around the corner with a yell starting to fire off shots, slamming back the bolt and recharging it with each repeated motion, trying to knock him out fast before he can get off the throne.

[girlofclay]

Betty charges her own revolver.

And then she's around there with Holtzmann, behind and just to the side, firing continuously, past the taller woman's waist. Her hand is steady, her aim true, and with the exception of the clicking noise as the device in place of the barrel sets and resets, her fire is unwavering.

She stays close to the side of her...partner, apparently.

[holtzmann_ed]

Probably for the best, because as the impacts start to churn up great chunks of his body, their undead target gives out a roar and much of the room floods with blue fire.

"Silly Living Things!" it calls, lurching from its throne and waving it's claws. "I shall make bowls of your skulls and turn your legacies to dust, and-"

Which is when she shoots directly for the mouth. She doesn't have time for that kind of crap.