NTWF Mafia: The Little Country Town

[Deleted]

Ari gasped. What was Terra doing, trying to charge at Robyn like that?! Terra really was a monster if she was trying to do this. Ari suspected she might have been the one who formed the whole mafia in the first place.

Well, she wasn't going to let this stand. For the sake of herself, Robyn, the Floozy, and everyone else who'd been murdered or hanged by mistake, Ari flew headlong at Terra, hoping to knock her over before she could try to hurt Robyn.

[Luna]

Luna stood, armed with only tooth and claw. A knife could beat that any day. Luna snarled at Terra. "Bring it."

"Guys! Stop! Stop for just a second." Robyn pleaded, and floated up to her, Ari and Terra. "Look at us. Look at all this blood. Out of the four of us, three have been pretty seriously injured. Possibly even mortally injured. I think that if I were alive, a stab wound right here would have impaled some pretty vital organs. Not to mention, Luna, you just stabbed Terra in the back and probably chomped on some serious arteries just now. Or...heck, I don't know, I'm a documentarian, not a doctor. My point is, I don't think we're killing each other here. Hurting each other, sure, but not killing. I think we might all be fighting for a lost cause."

"I-I think you're right Robyn." Luna said, stepping closer to her. "Maybe ghosts just cant die?" Luna took another step toward Robyn, hopefully just to talk to her, she did want to hurt her.

Terra sighed. “Maybe you’re right, Robyn. Maybe we should just leave each other alone. What’s the point?”

Then, whip-fast, Terra charged at Robyn. “Or maybe you’re only saying that because you’re afraid of what might happen if you’re wrong.” Terra aimed to stab her again.

"NO! TERRA!" Luna had regained most her energy, but had a large pain in her back, must have been when she fell from Terra's kicking. She grabbed down her boot, only to remember Terra had her knife. That 6 inch long blade could stab someone up in no time.

Luna was about push Robyn out of the way when Ari jumped in front of Terra and ran head-on at her. Oh, Come on, Ari! You think she doesn't know how to handle this? Luna looked around. "ROBYN." Luna shouted at Robyn, and grabbed by her arm. She pulled Robyn out of Terra's path, and ripped the glass out of her hand.

"I need this." Luna said. At least she had a weapon now.

Luna someone run from the Pizzeria to Icon's house. Was that Icon?

[Draco]

The Nameless GSIS stands under the fight, amazed at what he was watching. If he can somehow show people this fight, he could make millions. However he didn't. All he had was his Ghost Sparker... Wait, that's it!

He aims it up at a random ghost, and fire it. He knows it won't do any real harm, but it should distract them, or even calm them down some.

---

Drake looks around Luna's shop. He speaks quietly, but loud enough for the others to hear.

"Something we can use, but not make to much noise when traveling..."

He moves stuff around looking. Then he finds what he's looking for, though they are a bit dusty. An open box of leather knife holders. He pulls them out.

"Ok, find knives, and throw them in these. They look a little old, but they'll at least muffle the noise for the trip back."

He looks up and eyes a sword.

"Ooooh."

He takes it off the wall. It looked similar to one he described in one of his books. It had differences, but there were similarities that he liked. He took it down and strapped it to his waist. Staring at a few other swords, he questioned grabbing them, but grabbed a few more, for the others in case they wanted one.

"We're probably going to need to skip the armor. Chances are they won't stop a bullet anyhow. Maybe if we were up against pirates, but not these guys. Not to mention it would be to loud."

[Avery]

"We're probably going to need to skip the armor. Chances are they won't stop a bullet anyhow. Maybe if we were up against pirates, but not these guys. Not to mention it would be to loud."

"Yes," the Narrator agrees, forcing herself away from the wall where Luna's murder mementos hung. "Armor would probably be a bit much."

She wanders about the room, pocketing the weapons that catch her eye, carefully slipping the blades into protectors, making a mental catalog of what she and the other two are taking. Man, Luna was well-equipped, she thinks, as she swipes a particularly well-crafted razor-type apparatus. If it could be crafted, the girl had crafted it. She was gifted; the Narrator must admit this. Wistfully, she thinks to her mostly defunct shop, decides Luna-- if not for her murderous tendencies-- would have been a real asset in carving up the "beef".

"We ought not to linger too long," she says, examining a shiny sword with a gold-embossed handle. "In case that GSIS guy the grocer knocked out wakes up, spreads word of our jaunt through town."

[Draco]

Drake nods in agreement when something catches his eye. He bends down to open a box, and his eyes grow wide.

"Check this out."

Inside the box, tucked carefully away were bombs."

He looked around at the box looking for any markings, then he finds one.

"Smoke bombs. So they won't hurt anyone, but we can at least use these in a pinch."

He stuffs a couple and a lighter into a bag with the knives.

[Avery]

"Smoke bombs. So they won't hurt anyone, but we can at least use these in a pinch."

Smoke bombs or not, the Narrator is not particularly sold on the devices. Knives are one thing, but smoke bombs... seem a little much. Then again, she supposes if it comes down to it-- a fight between them and the GSIS-- they'll want to have as much firepower in their arsenal as possible. So she doesn't retort as Drake shoves the bombs into his bag.

She herself grabs a few more weapons before a sound from outside jars her. Voices. Loud.

"Crazy bugger knocked me out-- they went this way-- I'm sure of it--"

The Narrator's breath catches in her throat, she nearly drops a knife but regains control of it at the last moment. She glances at Drake and the grocer with fear in her eyes, listening with bated breath as two GSIS men-- she can see their outlines through the drawn curtains of Luna's place-- pace about outside. One of them, clearly, is the man the grocer knocked out; the other is a burly, deep-voiced guy who, from his shadow anyhow, seems way too large for any of them to knock unconscious without considerable effort.

She hopes and prays with all of her might that the GSIS men won't find them, that they'll move on to the next building, but just when she thinks they're in the clear...

... the grocer coughs.

She shoots a incredulous look at him. What the heck!? Meanwhile, Drake looks like he wants to strangle the guy.

Outside, the Narrator watches in horror as the two GSIS men draw back towards the shop, close in on the door. Why oh why hadn't they locked it behind them upon entry!?

If this were a movie, the whole thing would have happened in slow motion. Instead, the GSIS men burst into Luna's with extreme speed, guns drawn, a knot swelling on the head of the one they'd knocked out. Without thinking, the Narrator surges forward, grabs a smoke bomb from Drake's bag. As one of the GSIS men fires his gun wildly, hitting the wall, she detonates the bomb. The room is suddenly filled with thick, sulfurous smoke.

"Come on!" she screams, grabbing Drake's arm, not quite caring if the idiot grocer accompanies them on their mad dash away.

Her eyes stinging, throat burning, she and Drake stumble through the door, start running as fast as they can.

"We can't go to the pizzeria," she splutters, ducking into a dark alley, hoping the vague jangling of the few unsheathed knives in Drake's bag won't attract any attention. "We need-- we need to go somewhere else, somewhere we can't lead the GSIS to the rest of the town."

Distantly, she can hear the shouts of the GSIS men-- more than just the two. Apparently the clamor had attracted additional attention. There has to be more than a half dozen dark-suited men on their trail now.

"Here," gasps the Narrator, pointing to an overgrown garden between two houses, where the weeds have sprung up chest-high and brambles give the entire patch a dizzying look. "This will camouflage us-- until they pass..."

She hardly notices they've been separated from the grocer. And truthfully, she doesn't care. At least now they won't be subject to random coughing fits. Bloke deserves whatever the GSIS gives him, the Narrator decides. After all, he'd practically shouted their location. Might as well have sung it from the rooftops.

[Draco]

Looking up from where he was, he could see a shadow on a rooftop. It was the grocer. He ran and jumped from rooftop to rooftop, every now and then flipping.

He shakes his head, pretending he didn't see that, and waits for the GSIS to give up.

[Terra]

Terra noticed a blur out of the corner of her eye, and before she could get out of the way, Ariana had run headlong into her, knocking her aside.

Terra jabbed the knife up toward Ariana’s shoulder.

“Are you sure you want to go up against me?” she said. “I was planning to leave you alone, but now...”

Ariana seemed like one of those stupid heroic types, she thought. She had to be dealt with.

[Gelquie]

Glenda was cramped up in the midst of the pizzeria. She was glad to finally be free from her chains, but when it turned out that Luna was a member of the Mafia... There were only so many people left. It become more and more clear to her that the town was simply depleting. It wasn't just a loss of business, but she really wouldn't like it if everyone died... Sure, there weren't many people left, but at least there were some people that she would see enter her teashop, whether on a daily basis or not. She never really thought about how many people had come before the deaths began, but now the tension was getting to be a bit much. She sat hunched over in a chair, taking sips from her cup and trying not to think too much on her aching head.

And now she was trapped in a pizzeria. She couldn't even go home. At least she could get something to drink, but it wasn't much of a comfort with the GSIS outside. She just wanted to go back to her work in peace. She wished she was never granted citizenship. She figured it was more of a hassle than it was worth. And she was right.

And then there were the others. What was with Icon and his typewriter? Did Drake use his skills with knives for more than just sandwiches? Was Candy just a liar?

Glenda shook her head. She was starting to sound like one of them; not calm at all and tea-deficient. Tea would settle things down very much so. If she could get some, that is.

Glenda only watched as the others went outside. She really didn't want to move around too much, as she was still feeling ill. She stared into her cup, trying to decide how to make her beverage better with the materials the pizzeria had. She wished they hid in her tea shop. At least she would've been at home.

[Avery]

They had been hiding for hours.

Packed like sardines in a tin, shoulder-to-shoulder, too close for comfort, the last mafioso still likely within their midst. Outside they could hear the GSIS combing the town, growing increasingly aggravated, shouting orders amongst each other. Few dared talk; even fewer dared leave, dared venture out of the cramped but safe confines of the pizzeria.

After all, they were hot and crowded and miserable in here, but at least they were safe-- from the mafia and the GSIS both. Because as the last one standing, the remaining mafia member wouldn't dare commit a murder in full view of a hundred witnesses, would they? That would be suicide. The person would be lynched in an instant.

**

The woman had been in a sour mood all day.

Dragged out of her house like a common criminal-- chained up as a beast would be-- herded with the rest of the town into this cramped pizzeria. Dreadful place didn't even have tea. And without at least four cups a day, the woman could become awful tetchy...

Then someone had given her a cup. She hadn't been cogent enough to notice who, but she didn't really care. Tea was tea, eh?

She'd started feeling lightheaded after the first sip, but passed it off as exhaustion. Second and third sips brought some jitters, but then again... maybe that was the caffeine. So she sipped away-- sip, sip, sip-- nursing the tea as a drunk might a bottle of beer, savoring it, because she knew there would be no more for quite some time when it was gone.

It took her quite a while to drain it. And after she did... she didn't feel quite right. Dizzy, shaking, her stomach turning. Maybe it was withdrawal, she thought, from her potions.

Glenda Noshus had never gone so long without her potions.

She didn't realize she was dying, really; to the end, she made up excuses instead of admitting that she'd been served poisoned tea.

**

Once Glenda dropped dead, the townspeople were pretty panicked. Not only were they stuck in a very crowded pizzeria with two corpses, but Glenda's death confirmed that the last mafioso was in their midst.

And in the past half hour or so, more and more GSIS had gathered outside the pizzeria, leading to whispers that the investigators knew the townspeople were inside but hadn't yet mustered the courage to take on the entire populace of Netwaffle. That they were mounting an attack, a tactical operation.

"We can't stay in here forever," declared someone.

"We must fight them! We can't go down like cowards!"

Soon, the town had rallied together. They collected all the pretty knives the pizzeria had to offer, and a few people set off in the underground passages the librarian had pointed out to scavenge a few more weapons from their homes. In all, they had to admit they were shoddily armed, but didn't determination not to go to jail count for something?

"So," said a man once everyone had at least one flimsy weapon in their possession, "I suppose we oughta fight now?"

"Yes indeed, we must."

Leaving the bodies behind, the town exited the pizzeria to begin the battle for their freedom-- and, perhaps, their final stand against the mafia still lurking amongst them.

Glenda Noshus was a townsperson.

Setting: Fighting the GSIS!

General Summary of last two rounds for anyone who hasn't been keeping up but would like to rejoin the RP for the fun battle:

The town mayor, Porpington, got murdered for locking people in the ballroom-- and swallowing the key-- at a town dance, which was his brilliant idea to sniff out the mafia after they murdered Quintrell Nimbas at the dance. Terra (guilty) also got lynched after being suspiciously good at cutting people open (which she did to extricate the key from Porpington's stomach). The morning after the dance, the Greater Splatterboard Investigation Squad was called in because they'd been told of a dead mayor and couldn't ignore this travesty! They, however, were very good at ignoring Madame Ginz, who also turned up dead that morning, the mafia's latest victim. The GSIS rounded up the town for questioning and acted all menacing in general, but eventually Luna slipped free, unlocked her fellow citizens, and the town made a run for it. They're locked up in a pizzeria, hiding, as a few people scavenge weapons while avoiding the GSIS. However, Luna was called into suspicion for her expert escaping skills and was lynched (guilty).[/i]

[Kozma]

The last days of Quintrell's life had been most difficult and in death, he only wanted to do one thing: rest and remain in peace in the grave. The last thing he wished to was to wake from his serene slumber and return to the mortal plane, but something, some commotion was disturbing his rest. Like parents who are roused from their beds by their noisy children, Quintrell found himself being disturbed by the violent quarrels of his fellow ethereal townspeople.

Quintrell did not know his rest was being disturbed by the fight that had broken out between several of the ghost townspeople; he didn't have even the slightest idea what was disrupting his deathly sleep; he only knew that something was preventing him from being at peace. Unable to remain still and let the disturbance continue, Quintrell decided he would have to return to the mortal realm and put an end to whatever it was that kept him awake.

Quintrell soon found himself back in Netwaffle, which had been strangely deserted, save for the occasional GSIS agent. He did not recognize these people; who were they? Where were all the townsfolk; had they been killed off by the mafia?

Something was amiss, and Quintrell knew he would have to act quickly to find out what was going on.

[Gelquie]

Glenda opened her eyes and looked around her. She couldn't quite place it, but something about the whole environment around her seemed... different. Everything looked the same, but it all felt different. Everyone was chattering, but it all seemed more distant. Maybe it was that tea she was given. It must've been quite a tea. She'd have to ask for the brand. If only she knew who gave it to her. She wished she paid more attention. She stood there for a moment. It was strange; she didn't feel sick anymore.

...Come to think of it, she couldn't really feel anything anymore.

"That really was quite some tea," Glenda thought. She looked around at the others in the pizzeria and found that everyone was panicking. She didn't know how they became so scared so soon. If they panicked too much, the GSIS would catch them, wouldn't they? They all just had to take a deep breath and calm down... Hmm, speaking of taking deep breaths, Glenda found she didn't seem to be doing that. She looked up and then looked down...

...And stared at the corpse a few feet below her.

It was then that she took a moment to look at herself. She was all transparent and there was an odd glow around her... Was she... Did she die? ...The cup... It was the cup. She thought it tasted weird, which would be strange; she knew all sorts of flavors. It must've been a cyanide; out of all the things she included in her potions, cyanide was never one of them.

Glenda just stared around her for a moment, suddenly wondering if anyone could see her. She floated down a bit so that she wasn't so close to the ceiling.

"Hey, hello?" she called out. "Can anyone hear me? If I'm a ghost, can I go back to my tea shop now?"

[Celestial]

Celes had managed to escape the ballroom before the GSIS got there. Just as well, really. She hated cops. She couldn't think of a single reason to like them. In her experience, they were usually corrupt. How else could they have failed to solve her parents' murder when it was obvious that the Tabloid Town mafia had done it. A little digging by her servants had told her that most of the department in charge of the investigation were paid off by that same mafia. But what could she do about it? Even with the evidence, it was doubtful that there was anybody in the police she could trust. Plus, who would listen to a child of ten? In the end, she gave up on it, something the girl had regretted all her life.

It was no wonder that the townspeople finally snapped. Anybody would have snapped under the pincer of stress they were under. And Celes, having nothing better to do and no heaven or hell to go to, decided she might as well join in.

She floated towards the place where she heard the last mafioso was executed, the pizzeria. However, there was nobody there but Glenda. Celes did not know her very well, due to the fact that Glenda had become a citizen after she was killed, but she knew a ghost when she saw one. The transparency tended to give it away.

"You can go back to your teashop if you want but I doubt it will do any good. Nowhere is safe. It's better to fight now and rest later. But, if you really want to avoid all that, run back there. See how long you last," she said, rather crassly, considering that Glenda had just been killed. The girl did not really care about that. She liked being blunt more.

There were a few of the town newspapers lying around which caught Celes's eye. Only one more mafia member left. And only three surviving townspeople who could be them: Drake, Icon and Candy. Terra and Luna had been executed. Presumably, they were now wandering around as ghosts.

Perhaps she could wrangle some information about them. Make them talk.

Celes floated out of the pizzeria in search of either Terra or Luna. Both of them are the same time might not be such a good idea. But she would find them and certainly would not stop for any GSIS. Being dead just kept getting better.

[Deleted]

Ari screamed as Terra's knife sliced through her shoulder. She didn't even listen to what Terra was saying, she just flew up off the knife. Then she yelped as she was hit once again by a ghost sparker.

"YOW! Terra!"

She flew away. She couldn't take any more.

On her way back to Meowington's place, she thought about who might be the last mafia member. She thought about their names, and how they were associated with anything that might be mythological.

Terra meant "earth". Luna meant "moon". Amati, as far as Ari knew didn't mean anything.

It was all connected to stars and planets! Or at least, the astrological world.

The trouble was none of the three survivors had a name that could be connected to outer space. Then it struck her.

Drake. It meant "dragon". Dragons breathed fire. Fire combined to make -

"The sun!" she thought out loud.

It was all connected. Now that she thought of it, it was a pretty clever disguise, but not clever enough. Mr. Amati was the one most likely to get away. The only thing Ari could think of was that Amati and "aster" started with same letter. Aster, of course, related to stars.

Immediately she floated into the pizzeria.

"It's Drake!" she cried out. "He's the sun! It's all related! Terra was Earth, Luna was the moon, and Mr. Amati was the stars! Dragons breathe fire, and the sun's a ball of fire!"

[Draco]

Drake stepped into the Pizzeria dropping the bag of weapons as Ari burst into the room screaming. First thought was, where the heck were everyone. Most of the townspeople were missing. Then he noticed Glenda dead. Then he actually listened to what Ari said.

"I think you're thinking of a Draik. I'm Drake like the Duck. So does that mean I symbolize a aquatic bird that migrates seasonally?"

Looking around again, ignoring the ghost.

"Now the question is, where the heck did everyone go, and how did Glenda die?"

He notices the cup near her body and reaches for it, lifting it up he sniffs it.

"Bleh... Tea... Of course she would be drinking it."

He sets it down next to her body. That's when he felt like he was being watched... But not from Ari... He looks up to see the ghost of Glenda.

"Hello there. I take it the deli won't be receiving it's supply of tea then? And what do you think of Ari's reasoning?"