2018-08-09:Clash on the Big Bridge
- Log: Clash on the Big Bridge
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Yarobeleedt, Layna Manydays, Fei Fong Wong, Malfi, Dean Stark, Seraph Beast
- Where: West Nota
- Date: -2018-08-09
- Summary: A confrontation with a furious Ida veers out of control, and her foes learn the dangers of facing a Hellion.
===============================<* West Nota *>================================ Once two towns on opposite banks of a large river, East and West Nota are now a single city bound by a large bridge spanning both banks. Both halves of the city are laid out on sprawling terraces carved out of a large hill (some suggest by the Goddess herself). Stone stairs link the terraces to each other; the average Notan spends a good deal of his day climbing. The river marks the natural eastern border of the Goddess Plains, and as the last city in that part of the continent, West Nota has acquired the slightly pejorative nickname of "Faith's End." Nevertheless, the city sees a good deal of commercial traffic, as merchants with purses slimmer than their faith prepare to head across the bridge and into the eastern plains. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54PlUl6avjw
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
SEVERAL MINUTES AGO
A summer thunderstorm blows over Nota. Rain pours from the slate-grey sky, trickling down gutters and drainage ditches. It pours off the sides of the great bridge linking the two halves of the city, joining the river below. A flash of lightning illuminates four figures standing at the midpoint of the bridge. Three of them--two men and a woman--wear the sort of silken clothes favored by Meribia's trainee martial artists. The fourth wears a long grey cloak, its hood pulled back. Ida makes a conscious effort to keep her hands open as the three would-be bounty hunters issue their threats.
"Drop your devil-tools and surrender," says the woman. Ida knows better than to assume the metal fans she's reaching for are for show.
"I'm not here to hurt anyone," Ida says. She steps closer, rain pouring off her face and slicking her hair against her head. It looks like a grievous mismatch in the making: three trained, fit students of one of Meribia's masters against a haggard-looking woman who hasn't had a decent meal in weeks. "I was here to investigate a threat to all of your Althena's faithful. I will be on my way. I trust you will refrain from--"
"Spare me your lies!" says another of the hunters, a young man with a shaved head and a tattooed scalp. "You're coming with us!"
Ida takes a step closer. Lightning flashes again. The disguised Hellion stares into the eyes of the woman with the war fans, as if taking her measure. She doesn't need to look to tell that she's the most dangerous of the three. True power does not brag about how powerful it is.
"I said--!" The tattooed man grabs for Ida's wrist. The Hellion steps into a fighting stance, water sloshing around her boots; she pulls her hand away in a swift, fluid movement, before twisting her forearm around her attacker's. She grabs him just below the elbow, and twists. Bone splinters with a horrifying snap.
"Allow me to amend that," Ida snarls, as the tattooed man's face twists into a rictus of pain. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, but I will if pressed."
NOW
Nota--both halves of it--is in something of a panic. Citizens have bolted themselves inside their homes, and several would-be heroes lie in the street, dazed and bleeding, or trying to crawl to safety. The man with the tattooed head now has two broken arms, and his colleague carries him off on a twisted ankle. Out of the trio, only the woman with the fans is fighting. She stands with her back to the railing, panting with exertion as the Hellion bears down on her. To the vast majority of people here, Ida still looks like that scrawny, haggard academic. To the resonance-sensitive, she is big and well-built and imposing, Malevolence glowing off her. Her fists are clenched, but she makes no move to try and finish the would-be hunter off.
"So," Ida says. "I want you to tell something to this 'Master Lunn' of yours..."
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
SOME TIME AGO
Yarobeleedt slithers around a Goddess Statue. "How number of Celesdue?!" He screeches. This is a worrying sight, to have a gross and filthy-looking monster crawl around a sacred depiction of the Goddess. The Guard doesn't suffer this for very long, and they chase him off. Yet, he lingers a while and notices that nobody goes to try and seal it when they think they're rid of him. He's left scratching his head with a sharp-but-goopy finger and a vacant stare, because that is weird and makes no sense.
Almost as weird and nonsensical as to why there's so many 'Celesdue' statues when every other Guardian has one. Decoys? Multiple seals? Either way if he can just destroy enough of them...
NOW - DURING THE SUMMER RAIN
Yarobeleedt has been hiding under the bridge just to get out of the rain, and also because there's a lot of foot traffic and noise and he wants to get a better count of how many statues of 'Celesdue' there are. In his experience he always gets interrupted every time he finds a statue, so if he just counts them from afar and then goes for all of them at once it'll be too late to do anything about it.
The noise of scary, intense violence above comes to a momentary lull. The foul creature of a world befitting of it (said world also wants nothing to do with them and is offended by this statement) sinks a hooked scythe-arm into the railing off to Ida's right.
*TINK*
A less solid arm wraps around it for grip. A distinctive head with presently-bulging eyes that never quite seem to be able to rest and focus on something peer up - slowly, cautiously - while rain falls around them and gets so grossed out by this prospect that the rain accumulates no additional filth in its rush to get the hell off of it.
It peers at the scrawny-looking human woman, who looks so weak and famished, intimidating the martial artist who looks like she could - should - be snapping them in half.
Both eyes blink irregularly, as though in disbelief.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
These past few days had been a trying time for Layna. Sure, there was a marked improvement not too long ago, but she still very much felt like punching something. Or someone. She didn't particularly care who, since the target of her ire was far out of reach.
So of course when she wanders into Nota and finds the entire place in disarray - people locked inside their homes, unconscious individuals scattered everywhere and a big storm brewing over head - she of course heads straight to the source of the problem.
There, she finds Ida, who appears to be in the middle of something. Layna leans up against a railing, and...
...doesn't say anything. Hey, Ida's clearly in the middle of something. She isn't going to be so rude as to interrupt her fun, unless it looked like she was about to go too far.
If Ida looks in her direction, Layna will offer her a wave.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Again?"
Fei approaches the fallen martial artists from behind, stopping before he passes them. He isn't the sort of person to clobber someone while they're down, not unless there's a mission behind it at least to keep them out--desperate times and all that. "I'm startin' to think that I should let y'all lie in the bed you're making. Startin' to feel like believing in the Goddess is just a way to harness the belief of your own superiority." He looks over to the woman with the fans wondering, for a moment--but no, it can't be.
"Don't suppose you're willing to let the big bad hellion go, huh? I mean...your friends are hurt and havin' a hard enough time getting away... and I can speak from experience..."
His eyes narrow. "You never know when y'might lose your friends. Best to hold on tight, wouldn't you say, ma'am?"
He then turns to Ida, arms crossed and staring at her quietly. He doesn't say anything. Not just yet, not this time.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi is minding her own business, crossing the bridge, when a gleaming in her kinsight attracts her attention. She moves forward to investigate -- could it be one of her lost brethren? To her disappointment, it is only Yarobeleedt, and she was already well aware he'd been teleported to Lunar. She follows his gaze to a woman who looks like an emaciated bookworm, but evidently doesn't fight like one. Just what was going on?
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean had just intended on passing through Nota--it's rainy, it's wet, it's miserable, and his friends are waiting up for him over in Meribia. But when he'd passed by someone who was running away (which is normal enough, it's raining, Dean's also in a hurry as he holds his jacket pulled over his head) and screaming (definitely not normal), Dean had to take a look over in the direction the people were running from. What if someone's hurt and needs help?
And there are people hurt there. But it looks like they're with a lady with metal fans, who's fighting... "Ida?" Dean calls, coming to a stop. He looks over at Malfi and Fei--he doesn't yet spot Yaro, perhaps because the eye wants to skate away from him in clear revulsion--and Fei seems to imply that they picked a fight with Ida. But, well, Dean also remembers that he still hasn't gotten a chance to ask Ida about that attack on Vane. Either way, he looks over at Ida and her opponent in concern. "What's going on here?" he asks, because it's always best to just... ask.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
A thunderstorm rages, and mobile lightning rods ought to take cover.
The Beast of Lohgrin never has.
Nota is a new settlement, to her; a new round of convincing the locals that she is not a monster or a menace. There is only so much she can do, amongst the majority who do not hear her at all. Her first attempt went... poorly, and she beat a quick retreat before the guards started to become agitated.
(That she might have caused poor Yarobeleedt confusion as she tried to reason in an entirely one-sided way with a guard goes entirely over her broad headplates.)
And perhaps she would have left it at that, had the storm winds not carried their panic to her.
It does.
There is no one left to protest an animate statue, now, as it steps onto the bridge to approach the malevolent form of Ida Everstead-Rey and the foes about her. They are broken; they are bleeding. Empty eyes cast about the scene, the bolted windows and limping humans, the distant cry of a small child which leaks from behind closed doors. For all the carnage, there are no corpses.
She is restraining herself.
"Ida," calls the Beast, in caution and in hope, "I know not what has transpired here, but let us leave this place, and speak on the road."
If she can just extract her from this situation - the people can recover, and she can help Ida with whatever has led her to violence, and no one else has to get hurt.
And still she steps closer, just in case...
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Don't think you've won this," says the woman with the fans. She's almost able to keep the fear out of her voice. She steps to the side, crossing one leg over the other as though circling Ida--but judging by the way she's favoring one leg, it's definitely not to find a weakness. Ida looks away from her for a moment as a horrible squelching noise emanates from the side of the bridge where her opponent was standing. A blobby mass hauls itself up onto the bridge, sort of, and Ida recognizes it instantly.
"One moment," Ida says. Rather than touch Yarobeleedt with her bare hands, she rushes the railing--the edges of her form blurring into shadow--and grabs hold of it. Metal groans and strains as she puts weight into it, and the section of railing Yarobeleedt clings to snaps free. Ida holds it up one-handed, as though Yarobeleedt were a bug she found insteresting, but also particularly disgusting, and definitely worth keeping at arm's length.
"You," Ida says. She smiles at Yarobeleedt, and then at the strange, quiet woman who appears to be puzzled about him. She knows next to nothing about Malfi, and gives her a long, intent stare, as if trying to take her measure.
Meanwhile, the man with the tattooed head and the two broken arms looks up at Fei as he and his companion stagger off. Glaring is about all he can do, because at the moment, his jaw is also broken. His companion is a bit more talkative. "Get back, heretic," the man with the twisted ankle says. "She's--" One misstep on the rain-slick bridge is all it takes. The man's good leg flies out from under him, sending him and his companion down in a heap. (Some considerate soul then risks opening their door to haul the both of them to safety while the strange devil-possessed outlaw isn't looking.)
"I recognize you," Ida continues. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble--" People she knows start crawling out of the woodwork. In the distance, a child starts crying. The Beast pleads for her to stop. She should stop. She should clearly leave the loathsome Demon to its devices and--
"No," Ida says. "I won't." Then as emphasis, she swings the section of girder, with Yarobeleedt still attached, like a colossal club. Malfi, Fei, and the Beast of Lohgrin are all in the way. "I don't need your help. I don't need your pity!" Her Domain starts boiling off her, and while she's no Lord of Calamity, its pressure starts sapping at those further away.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Layna Manydays with Domain Pressure! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Dean Stark with Domain Pressure!
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Unchained Devil Ida!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malfi with Devil Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Beast with Devil Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Devil Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Devil Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has canceled their attack on Layna Manydays. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has canceled their attack on Dean Stark. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Dean Stark with Domain Pressure! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Layna Manydays with Domain Pressure! GS: CRITICAL! Yarobeleedt critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Devil Fist for 28 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Devil Fist for 85 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: CRITICAL! Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Domain Pressure for 51 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Malfi guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Devil Fist for 70 hit points! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Domain Pressure for 30 hit points! GS: Seraph Beast guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Devil Fist for 74 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
"what"
The screechy voice turns meekly as the sickly woman rips the railing off clean with themselves on it. Their blobby lower body makes a good try and flexing against what grip on the bridge itself it has. Ida will never even feel the amount of resistance being put forth. It rubber-bands right off of where it tries to keep hold, leaving the slug-bug-whatever's lower body to dangle freely in the summer thunderstorm rain while she puts on that smile.
Quietly, he flexes his lower body up and around the section of railing, tightly, as something that is not the clear color of rain drips from somewhere on their person with only an acrid scent to call attention to it. It is an attempt to try and hide all of that metallic biomass behind the railing, which is a ludicrously silly concept for the difference in size and girth.
Then there are screams, as Ida swings the club with one Yarobeleedt on it. The screams are from Yarobeleedt specifically, but there might be others just watching the improbable sight of such a small, famished woman heft and swing something far larger and heavier...!
Yarobeleedt isn't sure what he hits while being swung at them. He shrinks ever further against the railing he wraps himself around, tightening biomass and shaking and shuddering until he proves too slick to grip onto the railing any further. He hits the wet bridge with a weighty 'splat' and only has scant moments to take stock of the gathered. The rogue Metal Beast that actually isn't, the ^Creature Creature^ who may or may not be here to steal his glory with the 'Celesdue' statues, that one who had just punched him out of an arena, a loud boy with sticks on their ARMs, some other guy who he'd probably aggress on right away were he not so shaken--
Experimentally, as if to try and take the most worrying thing out of sight, the goopier of Yarobeleedt's arms forms into a flat, shield-like surface and hurls itself in a shoving, smothering blow of the sickly-looking woman like he just doesn't want to see her, just to try and squish her against the ground while the more solid arm reforms into an axe-like weapon of some kind to wave around dangerously at the rest.
"Fufufu... never early...! Soon Celesdue get taken! All of the Celedue. All for Yarobeleedt...!" He tries to pretend he didn't see or experience what he just did, that maybe, just maybe, he could crush that one that just did the thing to the railing right then and there and that'll be that and then he'll scare the rest of the scary things and then--
His thought process seems as though it would stand to be interrupted roughly around that part of the track, and it seems fruitless to commit any further of that to written word.
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Push a Bar! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi almost, almost asks Dean what he's doing there, but then she remembers she's disguised as a human. One that wouldn't know him -- or any of the other people (and one animated statue) that she remembers, here on the bridge. She listens keenly for answers to Dean's questions, though. Maybe now she'll have a clue what's going on. She's pretty sure Yarobeleedt will recognize her -- he's seen this shapeshifting before; it's one of four or five she's been practicing. Shifting, though not subterfuge, comes naturally to her; it feels strange to be using a fake name. Somehow that doesn't quite feel honorable...
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Her thoughts are interrupted, drastically, as the underfed woman on the bridge grabs a girder and starts swinging. She shouldn't be that strong! Some humans had unusual powers, but these were among the most unusual Malfi had ever seen! She connects, a solid hit to Malfi's torso. Malfi is definitely going to have some bruising, and possibly a fractured rib or two! Malfi returns the attack. Self-defense is a natural right!
GS: Malfi has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Spider's Grasp! GS: Malfi has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Yarobeleedt's Push a Bar for 44 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Malfi's Spider's Grasp for 0 hit points! GS: Entangle! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida drops the length of twisted railing, and rolls her right shoulder. She barely feels winded after that. Regrettably, though, the hideous slug-thing is still among the living, and as Yarobeleedt opens his mouth, Ida remembers Adlehyde. She remembers the burning streets. She remembers the first Metal Demon she fought there. (Not the first she knew was a Demon, because didn't Zed all but admit to that prior?)
You knew. Are you trying to make amends now?
Yarobeleedt might have few virtues, but 'speed' and 'slipperiness' are both arguably among them. The Demon's shield-arm connects with Ida's torso, a solid thunk emanating from the metal, but she's quick on the defense.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
Even if the Beast of Lohgrin recognised Malfi, she would not argue with her. Neither does she mean to cause Fei issues, despite the issues they had the last time they spoke in-depth. She does not mean to give either of them problems, this day. She is here because Ida is at the centre of trouble, and -
- one way or another -
- it has to stop.
But is what the Beast thinks of stopping the same thing as Ida..?
One of them would like to talk about it. The other abjures conversation. It ends at the point of a girder, torn from the bridge with careless might. "Ida!" Yells the Beast, as the makeshift club swings out. She locks her plates; the force of the blow sends her backwards, metal claws screeching against the bridge. Desperation colours her voice: "This is not about whether you need help!"
She moves to position herself between Ida and the woman with the fans, to facilitate her retreat. "I am glad to see no lives were lost here. But this terror is too much, Ida! What have the people of this settlement done to you?!" She appeals to her logic, for she can see no other course.
"Just stop and talk to me, Ida! Please!" Yet again, she is trying to talk down the monster. But her positioning is very deliberate: she means to keep herself between Ida and the people she could hurt.
GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Don't Hurt Them!! GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks down at the man with two broken arms. He exhales in a long sigh. He doesn't haul them to safety though this is largely because a girder is getting swung into Fei's face. He goes down like a sack of bricks and lies on the floor, bleeding. Did he somehow NOT think Ida was going to clobber him upside the head?
"Whdddy ndd." Fei says in the floor. He pushes his hands into the ground and slowly pushes himself up onto his hands and knees, coughing and dripping blood on the ground. He says it again, but a bit more clearly. "What do you need."
He pulls himself up into full standing position though he wobbles for a moment first. It looks like the girder hit him right across the forehead and nose because that's where the blood is coming from.
"Is it power?" Fei asks. "Since leaving Lahan, that's all it's ever been. Siegfried says I don't understand power, the Furies say they need power, Grahf wants me to use my power, it's all anybody ever talks about. Even the Guardian of Desire only wants to fight now and has teamed up with the aptly named Boomerang because that's the only topic that seems to come back around again."
He glances aside to Beast. If he has any problems with Beast herself he doesn't show any sign of it. Instead he starts walking towards Ida.
"Or maybe what you need that voice in your head to shut up. The one that says treating your friends horribly and smashin' their faces in is maybe bad. I can get behind the appeal of that."
Fei throws out a sudden palm thrust for Ida's face with scarcely any indication that he IS going to fight--for a moment it might've looked like he was just going to complain.
"But it's never going to shut up, Ida. No matter how kind you are or how cruel you are, it's with you forever. Every time you spill blood of those who wanted nothing but the best of you will be permanently etched upon your psyche."
Fei is quiet for a moment, but just a moment, before he adds, "Stop running from it. If this is what 'saving the world' takes, then it would be better if it were destroyed. I know you know that on some level otherwise you would stop screaming."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean doesn't recognize Malfi, as she's in disguise, but he recognizes Fei and he certainly recognizes Beast, whom he's momentarily surprised to hear. That's right, he started all of a sudden seeing Malevolence and Hellions, didn't he? So of course he'd be able to hear Beast. Anyway, that's not important--the fact that Ida's slinging a pole with a big slimy... thing on it around, is. And for some reason, she's in no mood to talk.
"I'm not pitying you, I just want to know what's going on!" Dean insists as that Domain stretches out and--it doesn't quite *hit* him, it's not that kind of force, but the anger and anxiety slam into him like an oncoming crashing wave. He stands his ground, teeth gritting, and then calls his ARMs into his hands with a flash of light. "Ida, I don't want to fight you!" He gestures at Beast, who pretty much takes the words out of his mouth. "Yeah! Just let us know what's going on! Even if you don't need any help, of course we're going to worry about you when we find you in the middle of a fight!"
He doesn't try to attack Ida just yet, even though he has his ARMs out; instead, he uses his Medium to cast a speed-up spell on himself, just in case he needs the extra speed boost for one reason or another.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Hagan! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Dean Stark has attacked Dean Stark with Quicken Edge! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Dean Stark takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Quicken Edge for 0 hit points! GS: Quick! Statuses applied to Dean Stark!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
...The blobby one. Layna looks at it and grins, recalling that fight in Meribia...right as Ida snaps the railing right off and lifts it up. And then others arrive, some familiar faces... And that's where things get worse. Ida swings the railing like a club. It doesn't hit her, but Layna feels something else -
A heavy pressure weighing down on her. It feels...familiar, though she can't quite place it. It takes her by surprise and nearly forces her to one knee.
Layna exhales and forces herself up to her feet, sending Ida a frown.
"Ida, lass. Now, you know I don't care about you beating up a bunch of random losers in the middle o' town, aye? But that? Maybe rein that in a little." Layna comments. It's...kind of on the opposite end of the Beast's entreatment. Layna then recites a quick incantation.
Wind begins to spiral around Ida - it's not so much painful as it is bothering.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Wind Spiral! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hagan for 59 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Seraph Beast's Don't Hurt Them! for 0 hit points! GS: Weaken! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Wind Spiral for 105 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida drops the length of twisted railing, and rolls her right shoulder. She barely feels winded after that. Regrettably, though, the hideous slug-thing is still among the living, and as Yarobeleedt opens his mouth, Ida remembers Adlehyde. She remembers the burning streets. She remembers the first Metal Demon she fought there. (Not the first she knew was a Demon, because didn't Zed all but admit to that prior?)
You knew. Are you trying to make amends now?
Yarobeleedt might have few virtues, but 'speed' and 'slipperiness' are both arguably among them. The Demon's shield-arm connects with Ida's torso, a solid thunk emanating from the metal, but she's quick on the defense. She raises a hand, grips the edge of the shield, and shoves, hopefully removing Yaro from her immediate vicinity. The Beast speaks to her, asks to know what the people of this place have done. "Nothing," Ida says, to the Seraph she still calls 'friend'. Her voice wavers, ever-so-slightly. Fei stumbles up to her, blood spilling from his forehead. "That's--that's not it. That's never been it. Do you even know what this is about, Fei? The power was just a distraction."
Malfi's net comes out of nowhere, wrapping around Ida's right arm and pinning it to her side. The Hellion's eyes narrow, and she lets out a blood-chilling snarl. Fei launches a blindingly-fast strike of his own, one that looks, for all the world, like it's going to smash into Ida's face. At the last second, her Domain thickens, and his hand glances off the shield of Malevolence. "It's the guilt. It's the helplessness. It's knowing that the world is destroying itself and you can't do a bloody thing to stop it because you're too weak. Not just too weak--too cowardly. Too craven. Too wicked." Ida strains against the rope as she speaks, trying to untangle her arm, but whatever the hell it's made of, it's strong. Beast's words sink deeper, into Ida's heart. Malevolence surges around her as helpless rage wars with despair and loneliness and longing. "It's too late," Ida whispers. It's anyone's guess if she's processing what Dean is saying, or if the sound of his pleading voice is just too much for her. Her hand fumbles for her shadow, draws a Dragonbone revolver, and fires three times at Malfi. She's shaking. The Malevolence intensifies. It looks--feels--like she's being torn apart.
Ida steps forwards, leans into Fei's face. Malevolence spills from her lips in great plumes, thick with despair and self-loathing. She breathes out, and a cloud of it envelops Fei's head. If he breathes it in, it will sink right into his meridians, render the chi within sluggish and unresponsive. "Please. It's too late for me." Even then, she pleads with him. "You deserve to live. I--"
Layna's whirlwind erupts. Ida stumbles back, wind whipping her sodden hair and clothes every which way. "This world is broken," Ida whispers, "and all I have done is break it further." She takes a step, only to be shoved back by the wall of air in front of her. Her hand flickers, and quite suddenly, she's holding that big, Dragonbone copy of Devil's Due. She aims at Layna's feet as best as she can, and pulls the trigger; a column of flame sprays from the weapon's barrel, and she rakes it over towards Malfi. "And what's your interest in this, hm?!" Ida snarls, as though Malfi were here for a reason. Perhaps she's a gawker here to witness the inevitable, messy end of this human trainwreck.
She can't bring herself to look at Dean. She can't bring herself to look at the Beast of Lohgrin. She doesn't deserve their mercy.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with Eww Eww Gross! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 1 Combo on Disease! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Malignant Devil Breath! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Layna Manydays with Desecration Flame! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has spent 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malfi with Desecration Flame! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Eww Eww Gross for 113 hit points! GS: Layna Manydays takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Desecration Flame for 150 hit points! GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Layna Manydays! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Malignant Devil Breath for 0 hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong! GS: Fei Fong Wong has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off their temporary hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong loses a Combo from Interrupt! GS: Malfi takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Desecration Flame for 133 hit points! GS: Toxin! Statuses applied to Malfi!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi gasps as three metal slugs rip into her torso, quicksilver blood evident. She is not fast enough to dodge the flames, either, as the venom takes hold. These injuries would be a lot more serious if she didn't regenerate! Fortunately for her, she does: she also has presence of mind enough to mentally reach out for the attacking ARM, trying to cause it to malfunction.
GS: Malfi has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Dead Reckoning! GS: Malfi takes 9 damage from Toxin! GS: Malfi has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Malfi's Dead Reckoning for 52 hit points! GS: Cripple and Jam! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Malfi!
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt's train of thought is derailed at the predicted time, as something moves underneath the shield-arm. He wants to think 'something' because 'someone' should be squished. He edges into it as people try to talk nice things to something or another while he's still waving an axe-like arm threateningly as though he registers as anything more than an annoyance.
Or maybe, just maybe, this person he's trying to squish means more to them than he does to them.
Muscles - or whatever the anatomical equivalent is when one is so deeply wounded that regenerative capabilities can't do much other than just maintain some 'agreed upon' amount of general mass to stick together for most of one's body - cramp and hitch as the sicky-looking young woman just shoves the shield-arm right off. The rest of the arm behind it painfully compresses further as the only reasonably solid part of the present configuration slams into him like she were instead ramming it into him, and the blobby naga-worm-whatever sprawls out on their back. Just in time to see the rogue Metal Beast (which is just Seraph Beast) stand in the way, protectively.
"Wow ow how?!" The screechy thing edges backwards. That few pay attention to him is to his benefit, as he starts to try and slink around the perimeter of the general area of the gathered. He does not know there is more of a 'thing' in the silent construct than it looks. He only knows that it looks scary and decidedly loyal to something it should not, and also that it is not that but-- anyway it's scary. Everything about this is scary. Everything about this makes no sense.
Ida's friends - actual friends - try to reach out to her, to get her to listen, to open herself up and not resign herself to the inner voice plaguing her very everything. Yarobeleedt pays little heed to the content of these words, because he does not understand the words being said in conjunction to the blows being delivered around him.
He slithers, creeps, sizes up the sickly woman. Maybe she can still be reached by those who care for her, but he does not think in terms of that. He never could understand.
He only understands one thing, as the more solid-arm reconfigures itself into a serrated syringe to try and plunge into Ida's upper back - to take any tactical advantage available to him, no matter the scorn of his peers for his ways. To inject her with a physical, painful venom whose sensation is the exact opposite of any sort of invitation to meaningful thought or introspection.
Because scary things are less scary when they're dead!! (Sometimes.)
GS: Yarobeleedt has activated a Force Action! GS: Yarobeleedt has spent 1 Combo on Disease! GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Lily River! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Lily River for 126 hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 damage, and burn off their temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "Do you think the world will be saved by punching it really hard?" to Ida. Of course the problem with sassing Ida is that it leaves your mouth open and the toxic cloud easily gets within his system. Fei stumbles backwards and he stumbles away from Ida, grabbing at his head. Fucking with Fei's chi is a legitimate way to battle Feis. He sinks to one knee, panting for breath and spewing vomit off to the side shortly after. He still looks queasy when he looks back up. "How many people have we run into thinking they can save the world with power? Have they ever done anything but make things worse?"
And then Fei says something that is so ironic that it's surprising he doesn't cave in on himself and collapse into a black hole.
"Do you hate yourself so much you don't think anybody can like you??"
His body shakes once more before he howls through the chakra points he has that aren't disrupted and sends a wave of ice towards Ida.
"That's right!" Fei agrees. "You're a coward! It's not the end of the world! You still deserve a happy life, not every negative quality needs to be put to the lash! Please...let yourself be purified." Or it will be too late for real one day if the lion man is any consideration.
Actually Fei seems to have recovered more quickly from that malevolence hit. Maybe he's getting used to it or maybe something's UZDA IL JAMMING it.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey critically Guards a hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 27 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean winces as Ida hits, and continues to hit, Fei and the others. The only ones she's leaving unscathed so far are, well, him and Beast. Fei asks if it's about the power, and Ida says no, the power was just a distraction, it's about the helplessness, the sick feeling get when you know you're too weak to do anything to help anyone.
"That's not true!" he protests. "Even if you're weak, you can still do something to help, even if it's something small! You don't have to save the whole world all by yourself, Ida--you can start out with what you can do, and work forward from there!" He nods to his friend. "It's like Fei says--you deserve to be happy! It's fine if you've made mistakes! Your teacher was wrong; you're a person, not a flask of water, and people can start over! You don't have to do this, Ida!!"
...But is she listening to him at all? Dean honestly doesn't know. As it is, though, she's still fighting... and while fighting one's hardest is a good thing, she's fighting to keep vilifying herself. If she isn't going to attack him, then good; he'll just have to get right up in her face and crowd her so closely she can't get an attack off on anyone else! Of course, he might crowd her with those combat rods a little *too* closely... It's hard not to hit someone when you're trying to knock their aim off or push them away from the people they're attacking.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Double Strike! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna frowns as Ida speaks. ...She doesn't have a refutation ready for any of that. That Malevolence...she was starting to think Ida couldn't control it anymore. Now she felt bad about her words.
"...Sorry, lass. Looks like I didn't understand the breadth of things." Layna replies with a sigh, shaking her head. She was going to have to get serious here, wasn't she? "...But do you think this is fixing things? I've seen their type before, tryin' to drive these folks away is just gonna make them try to get to you even more, y'know?"
She gestures a thumb toward Fei, Dean, and the Beast.
"Just set down the ARM and...let's talk. You aren't the only one here who's done terrible things, lass." Layna says...right as Ida aims the larger Devil's Due at her feet, spewing a column of flame.
Layna curses and tries to leap away from it, but she underestimates how far it spreads. Flame engulfs her feet. She recites a quick incantation, whipping out a whirlwind to wash the flames away. She only manages to do so partially - it'll limit her mobility just a bit.
In retaliation, however, Layna recites yet another incantation - this one whipping up blades of air that, with a gesture, Layna sends flying toward Ida's weapon.
GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Cutlass Gale! GS: Layna Manydays takes 12 damage from Toxin! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Cutlass Gale for 139 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Double Strike for 93 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
Ida does not attack the Beast of Lohgrin; the Beast does not attack Ida.
But Ida attacks everyone else.
Well. Almost everyone else.
"It is never too late, Ida. There is always another option. I know you are hurting, but please, stop this madness!" Fei grips at his head; he will find the Beast standing between himself and Ida. This is not the first time she's seen him beleagured so, in a fight between himself and Ida. And having seen it before, she does not wish to see it again.
(Perhaps she would have defended that poor poisonous slug, but he's taking a rather more proactive approach.)
"... there are other ways to express yourself than this!"
GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Desperate Diplomacy! GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Silver blood splatters the bricks of the bridge, and it did not come from Yarobeleedt. Ida turns to Malfi, a predatory smile dawning on her face as she sees those bleeding wounds. "You're a Demon," Ida says. At least it doesn't sound perjorative? "I don't take kindly to Demons thinking they can play me for a fool." Pain and hurt surge into Ida's voice. She pulls the trigger again, and hears a hollow click-clunk. Peacemaker has never misfired before. It can't, under normal circumstances. Ida's smile twists into a look of rage. Her right arm rips free of the netting, leaving it dangling from her in ragged tangles.
Fei recovers much more quickly than Ida expected him to. "You know the answer to that," she says, her lips twisting in a grimace. Rather than set the ARM down as Layna asks, she starts to slide out the magazine. The blades of wind whip through the storm surrounding Ida, slamming into the barrel of the gun. Peacemaker goes flying, and Ida blurs forwards, grimacing again as she passes through the vortex. The gun splashes into a puddle, and Ida reaches down for it; it twists apart into coils of shadow, and slithers into the shadows behind her.
'Your teacher was wrong; you're a person, not a flask of water, and people can start over!'
Ida starts. Confusion flickers in her eyes, but then she realizes what Dean is referring to, impossibly, because he was at most several years old when it happened. Ice condenses out of the air, racing at her. Rather than brave Fei's chilling assault, she steps closer to Dean, twisting so he's out of the line of fire. She's grateful to see him. She doesn't want him here, doesn't want to see him hurt. She opens her mouth to speak to Beast--
Yarobeleedt's blade-arm slams into her from behind. Blood sprays from her chest, at Dean and Fei. She lets out a sickly, wheezing cough, bloody froth spilling from her lips. Punctured lung. Ida's gaze darts sideways, as though she could see the slug-thing behind her if she stared hard enough. Flesh starts to knit across the wound, and breathing becomes marginally less agonizing. She'll kill them. She'll kill both of them.
To Yarobeleedt and Malfi, the human closes her eyes, and lifts off the bridge, ever-so-slightly, in a way that might just be a trick of the light.
Everyone else sees the truth. Blood drips from Ida's twisted lips as her body tears itself apart, bloodlessly, into streamers of color and shadow. The star consumes them, one after another, growing larger and brighter until it's unbearable to look at. It flares, grows hot...
And a body reforms around it--a body made of cast metal and volcanic stone, rent with blazing, Malevolence-spewing cracks. Three pairs of strong, limber arms knit themselves together, clenching fists. Strong, aristocratic features form from the metal plate that is the body's face. It's tall and strong and literally statuesque--and that brilliant star blazes in its heart. Bits of shaped, half-molten Dragonbone float in the air around it. Around her. Ida tosses her head back, and her Domain roars, all desperate, driven need to be something. White lotuses bloom at her feet, sending roots down through the brick of the bridge. Bits of metal rain from the air around her like iron fresh from the forge.
The Malevolent Domain rushes outwards from the Hellion projecting it, an aura saturated with toxic feelings. Malfi cannot see it, and thus cannot see the wave of brilliant red rushing at her, overwhelming her with raw spiritual might, before racing back to empower its master.
Ida turns on Yarobeleedt, holds out a hand, and thrusts it out at him in an open-palm strike right for the center of his torso. Should it hit, phantasmal white lotuses will blossom from the point of impact, and from the opposite of it--as if she'd knocked them clear through Yarobeleedt's torso.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to The Hollow Asura!
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey critically Guards a hit from Seraph Beast's Desperate Diplomacy for 0 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Survival Is Fury! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Dean Stark with Survival Is Fury! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Layna Manydays with Survival Is Fury! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Seraph Beast with Survival Is Fury! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Yarobeleedt with The Lotus Blooms! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Malfi with Dominion Coil! GS: Layna Manydays takes a glancing hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Survival Is Fury for 100 hit points! GS: Malfi critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Dominion Coil for 29 hit points! GS: Mighty! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey! GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's The Lotus Blooms for 190 hit points!
DC: MISS! Dean Stark completely evades Survival Is Fury from Ida Everstead-Rey!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
The waves of Malevolence coil around Malfi, but slide off, unable to take hold. She is too strange, too alien, for them to take root. She shakes them off, puzzled. She can't see the changes Ida has made to her own body, nor the Malevolent star. "Yes, I'm a demon," she admits. "But YOU attacked ME first, remember?!?" She won't be using this particular disguise again...
GS: Seraph Beast guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Survival Is Fury for 127 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Survival Is Fury for 83 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei thought Yarobeleedt was harmless, a creature that couldn't even defeat children.
Fei thought he didn't have to worry about him. He thought he could safely ignore that pile of nonsense flying out of Yarobeleedt's mouth. Sure, he hurt people, but there was so much worse that he went along with that dream that maybe they wouldn't have to kill someone that evokes pity frankly more than rage.
Lunar was supposed to be a vacation. It was supposed to be a nice break from all the people who want to kill or capture him back on Filgaia, a break from a dying world and a nice paradise.
But day
After day
After day
Horror after horror after horror. He thought Yarobeleedt was harmless and now his claw is sticking through Ida's chest. If Ida weren't a hellion, that kind of blow could at least cripple Ida for life if not outright kill her. As a hellion she can survive.
But she doesn't just survive. She transforms horrifically into something even beyond that which she once was. The Malevolent Domain, previously readily shrugged off, slams into Fei. His newfound resilliance helps. In fact, it helps enough that he can't honestly blame the malevolence for what comes next regardless of the pain it puts his body through.
Do you hate yourself so much you don't think anybody can like you?
Fei hangs his head, panting for breath, sweating up a storm.
He had promised himself that he wouldn't fail Luisa's descendant
He had promised himself that it would be different this time
But now he can see how faraway that promise is
He can see that it will not be kept
She will end just like her ancestor
Fei screams in rage as he rushes towards Ida and--no wait, he's rushing towards Yarobeleedt. Rather than blame himself, he'd much rather blame Yarobeleedt for what just happened here and, to be fair to Fei Fong Wong here, Fei isn't the person who impaled Ida here immediately preceeding the second phase transformation sequence.
"You...you did this to her!!" He screams. "You want your 'Mother' so bad?!" Fei screams at Yaro. "You want her so bad?! you'll get to see her and she'll kill you and the world will sob at how pathetic your end is! That's your destiny, slug! And I ENCOURAGE YOU TO CHASE IT!!"
He throws his palm strikes for Ida's lotus palm energy billows, redirecting the energy busting out through Yaro--to punch right back through him once more.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Yarobeleedt with Yin Yang Strike! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Yin Yang Strike for 167 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna prepares herself to react...when something happens. She had ignored that slug-like creature - Yarobeleedt, was it? - thinking it was insignificant.
...And then a blade is rammed through Ida's chest.
"Ida!" Layna shouts, surprised and concerned. She takes a step forward...then recoils, and she watches Ida's body rip itself apart. That blazing star at the core of her being consumes her...and she reforms.
"...What the hell happened to you...?" Layna asks, backpedaling. It was a good look and she could appreciate it, if it wasn't for what happens next - the force of Ida's domain presses down on her, forcing her down to a knee. She can feel the emotions try to overtake her. She shrugs those off easily enough, but she can still feel it weighed down on her, making her movements sluggish. Even so...Layna grimaces.
Getting into melee range...probably wasn't a good idea.
"Are you still in there, lass? Can you even still hear us?" Layna asks. But...right now, defending herself is probably still a good idea. The wind around her takes on a sudden sharpness before being sent in Ida's direction.
She wasn't sure what she was dealing with here. Better play it safe.
GS: Layna Manydays enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Layna Manydays has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Gust Dagger! GS: Layna Manydays has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
It becomes chaos as blood flies everywhere.
"Surprise, that is a twisted ending by yours!" A shrill voice screams from a maw that seems too wide to be supported by a narrow head. Rain droplets pour down a head clad in 'hair' that continues to beu ndecided as to whether it's long thin strands of steel or a cracked helmet that just does not fit itss wearer. Beady eyes narrow into even tinier dots at the sight of the arm running through Ida. The arm reforms into something sharper, as if they want to do more.
As though the act of pouncing on someone who looks so weak while they're already at a tactical disadvantage makes him stronger, emboldens him. Where he was ruled by his fears of what he did not understand, in a world that is not his - just the very idea he could establish strength by any means, no matter how 'unfair...' that's a rus--
Ida stares. The first 'fu' never comes. The sharpness in her gaze. She should be dead. The dying don't look like that--
He screeches as a terrible burning runs through the more solid-arm starts looking a whole lot less solid than usual. He panics as he tries to pull it back. He does not succeed. Somewhere in the incredible heat of a source he does not understand, as Ida is somehow... taller? Is she standing on the railing? He can't double-check what he's actually seeing because he can't pull it out of her lung! In his attempt to retract it back, the act of retraction pulls him forward.
"Nooooo! Nononononono," he panics, drawing ever closer to a rage-driven woman whose body should be impotent. Weak, human flesh... but she is not dying. He is hit by a wave of something he cannot define, something that should send the slug-bottomed bottom-feeding coward back. It makes the journey towards Ida's person more painful, more turbulent. A force wants to tear him apart, away, while his attempt to retract that arm back out brings him closer instead.
Within arm's reach. Yarobeleedt's gaze looks upon Ida as she draws back a hand. She is drawing back a hand but somehow when he blinks an eye it looks like her shoulder is raised a lot higher than it does from the other eye and he does not understand why.
A LONG TIME AGO - DURING THE BATTLE OF ADLEHYDE
Ida shoots for center-mass with conviction from Devil's Due. The bullets seem to connect, to sink in, with visible splashes of whatever matter makes up this horrible creature whose ichor is - decidedly - not crimson, no more than a minute after she questioned the color of Claude's blood. This, among other attempts, do not seem to stop them.
"Kyaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeee---!!" The Metal Demon screeches as Claude hammers at it. He seems like he might push them back, he might succeed. They squeal, they shake, they otherwise... didn't look that much different from that screaming, crying child near a mother that stood to be a victim.
They bark absolute nonsensical madness as they lunge forward through the air like even Claude's incredible martial prowess were nothing, limbs swinging wildly and indiscriminately through the team as it plunges back into the ground from whence they came - coursing poison through the tips of their morphing weapon-arms.
The venom that he injected in Ida in that strike would course through her veins, promising her an ignoble end had she not managed to survive the Metal Demons' massacre as a whole.
RIGHT NOW
Yarobeleedt's arm is still stuck in her, for the moment. He could be filling her with even more poison, at greater concentration than before. Is she no stronger now? And yet, the eagerness in their eyes when they landed that blow has melted away back into fear.
"Kyaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeee---!!" That exact same scream from Yarobeleedt. A sense of fear and helplessness - even before the open palm strike rushes in for center mass.
From where she tried to shoot him. Perhaps a coincidence. His upper torso, one of the few truly solid and coherent parts left to him, buckles and shatters as the phantasmal white lotuses blossom from the sight - from front...
...and the scattering of petals from behind, easy to miss with the gigantic splash of quicksilver blood that further stains the bridge.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
A LONG TIME AGO - DURING THE BATTLE OF ADLEHYDE
Something horrifying - moreso than usual - casts a shadow up above a crumbling building. A serpentine figure casts a sinister light among the flames. Their posture kind of droopy, maybe a little... dribbly? The way their long fingers stretch out, it looks as though the very edges of them could drip off at any moment. Some foul liquid does drip off their types, an acrid smoke rising from where they make contact with flames. They crawl over the edge, gripping against the uneven grooves of a wall that doesn't look like it could support the weight of such a creature. A sneer forms on a face that seems too narrow to support the mouth, beady little eyes even beadier underneath a helmet-shaped headpiece that can't decide if it's a helmet or hair, of some kind.
They gibber in an ear-splitting voice that is twice as unpleasant to hear as those words are to make sense of as they crawl ever closer. The hands twist and sharpen into gleaming yellowish metal edges as they stab into the wall. The worm-like lower half of their body pulsates with every undulation. Though, for their every taunt, they don't seem to be closing in that quickly... what should be ten seconds stretches into thirty.
Fei desperately tries to kick aside carts that are on fire, in the company of others. They are unable to clear away the ruin. They are unable to escape the encroaching wrath of this horrible beast that looks ready to make them into victims anew... they could only run. It was only through the, at the time, unknown grace of a sympathetic spy among them - one fable of a self-called Crimson Noble - that they could prevent him from pursuing.
RIGHT NOW
"N-Not turn to ruuuuun! Not turn to diiiiieeeeee!" He feebly protests, vague paraphrases of similar words - threats - delivered as Fei and others desperately tried to clear away flaming wreckage at Adlehyde. He wants his 'Mother' so bad. He flinches as he cannot bear to look Fei in the eye. Something's... he can't describe it. He doesn't want to look or hear it. His heart - if he even has one, he probably doesn't, so let's just say his organ that regulates the pumping of blood - skips beats just being near that sort of fury. Something primal.
A palm strike comes anew, and the damage once again re-focuses into his crumbling torso. "You go first! You go zeroth...! Run! Die! Dierun... rundie... not--" Even his choking is ear-splitting, the pained whines almost a viable counterattack unto itself as his breath leaves him in another explosion of force.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
It is in that moment that Fei forcefully ejects him, sending him tumbling across the length of the bridge while the phantasmal lotus petals linger, now hued red and flit about the ongoing storms. Yarobeleedt, lying prone, writhes in deathly fear as he clutches himself closer.
Weak. Helpless. Worthless. Just like them.
Powerless to do anything against the monsters that walk the world. Just like them.
The smaller, squashed bug of a thing pulls a sheet of metallic fabric out of nowhere, almost mirror-like in its sheen.
His senses swim. Lightning flashes. It is only a fraction of a second, but the way the light bends, the very silhouette of a six-armed statuesque creature of wrath and nihilism - an outline rejected by what it understands of light and sight, pushed aside as a traumatic hallucination in favor of the 'actual' appearance of a frail hu-- a monster.
Or the outline of the humble artist, who instead looks a lot more like--
That is a monster that looks like a human.
Unable to have the strength to face what must. Just like them.
Only able to go hide to some safe space of their imagining. Just like them.
The sheet of fabric goes around him, obscuring him - believing himself protected, by shutting out the entire world.
Just waiting to be squished.
Just like them.
Just another cog in the endless machine of death and violence that only seems willing to look past it when it is about to grind him to dust.
Just like...
GS: Yarobeleedt has attacked Yarobeleedt with Skin And Or! GS: Yarobeleedt has completed its action. GS: Yarobeleedt takes a solid hit from Yarobeleedt's Skin And Or for 0 hit points! GS: Shield! Statuses applied to Yarobeleedt!
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi only watches as Yarobeleedt retreats into his cocoon. A coward he is, but he's also badly injured. Just what makes this feeble-looking anorexic woman so powerful? She can't comprehend it...BUT she can take action. Her disguise useless now, Malfi forms her right arm into razor-lined tendrils and launches them at the Hellion. If they hit, they'll cause hundreds if not thousands of tiny cuts, leeching life force into their owner.
GS: Malfi enters a Counter stance! GS: Malfi has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Transfuse! GS: Malfi takes 9 damage from Toxin! GS: Malfi has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida wasn't expecting the Malevolence to set roots. Kalve has spent days at a time in and around Castle Rabenstein with no lingering taint to show for it. Why would another Demon react differently? "Adlehyde," Ida says, to Malfi. Her voice is a low hiss, metallic and hollow but impressive-sounding all the same. "Your feigned ignorance brings shame to your people, and whatever martial line taught you. Die on your feet if you have any honor in you."
That answers Layna's question, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Huh? A Demon?" Dean utters, looking from Ida over to the disguised Malfi. He still can't recognize her--is Ida mistaken? But then Malfi confirms that she's right, and that voice is familiar-- "Malfi?" he wonders. Meanwhile Ida starts to disassemble her ARM rather than put it down, while reacting to both Fei and him. It seems like she might calm down; at the least, she turns to try to shield Dean from any attacks, which was not the point f what he was trying to do, but he appreciates the fact that she tries. She starts to speak--
*shunk*
And then something long and sharp bursts through Ida's chest.
"IDA!!" Dean screams, horrified. She might be a Hellion, but that's an enormous blade through the chest! And yet--and yet her body disassembles itself, Malevolence remaking her into something greater, more horrific, more inhuman by far. "*IDA*!" Dean calls again, but this time the cadence is difference; this time it's the voice of one calling for his friend to come back, rather than screaming in horror for a friend's well-being.
It might be too late for that, though. Now, at last, it seems like his friend is well and truly too gone to hear anything. He can only hope that it's temporary, a result of the stresses of battle that will go away once she calms down, rather than permanent. Just the way she'll be from now on.
And the way she *turns* on the one who'd stabbed her--Dean doesn't blame her for attacking Yaro, but this is so much more violent than he usually sees from her. But that's the point, isn't it? These are all her darkest urges, unleashed. The Malevolent Domain *EXPLODES* outward, but by chance or fate, Dean manages to avoid the poisonous spiritual wave. Perhaps he's too optimistic for it to bring him down; perhaps it's because he's so focused on Ida right in the here and now; part of it is... But then Ida responds to Malfi's accusation that she attacked first, answers in a voice that is lucid.
"Ida, STOP!" he insists. "This has already gone way too far! I don't want to see you get hurt any more!" He shoots a look over at Yaro, but the slimy, cowardly creature that Ida had been using as part of a pole-mace has retreated into a cocoon. All he can do is try to block her further, try to get in the way of any more of her attacks--though he's not sure that'll work. Not if she's projecting her negative emotions directly on to her opponents.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Double Strike! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
'Humans're tougher than you think -- at least, like, the ones that matter.'
It was so difficult to believe Nimue's words, the first she'd heard from a Seraph in so long. But the Beast of Lohgrin has tried. She has tried to credit humanity their strengths, their tenacity. She has tried to believe that they are stronger than the frailty afforded their fleeting lives.
It's difficult to see what Yarobeleedt is doing, behind Ida. Difficult, until the blade of an arm plunges clean through. A chest is not an empty thing; it is possessed of life-blood and organs, essential to mortal life. Those contents splatter, holes which belong and those which never did. What terrible echoes, the chest wound. What terrible tenor comes with this second verse.
Blood flecks across iron. There is no flinch, no gasp, no dropped jaw.
Hollow eyes betray no hint of the horror in her voice as she murmurs, "... they all break."
The truth lies bleeding.
But Ida is not human. Ida is something less entirely. She does not crumple; she changes.
There is no sorrow on an iron mask to see its mirror. A mask reflects no emotion at all.
The Malevolence of Ida's Domain pours out, a cornucopia of sorrow, and the Beast locks plates over each other as it washes past. Iron can do nothing against the horrors of emotion; it seeps in, seeps through. Oh, yes, this is a way of expression. This is most certainly a way to communicate.
It hurts.
"Ida," comes creaky voice, pained from the strain of it. "You do not have to do this - Ida..!"
The breeze which settles about Ida is light as Spring, soft and refreshing. There is no wound about it; it reinforces, it restores. And as that soft air flows out, she struggles forward, step over painful step, to place herself between Ida and those creatures she would kill.
They are words from a snowstorm. "You do not have to be a monster, Ida!"
GS: Seraph Beast has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Soothing Breeze! GS: Seraph Beast has completed her action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Layna Manydays's Gust Dagger for 117 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Malfi's Transfuse for 52 hit points! GS: Malfi drains Ida Everstead-Rey! Malfi gains 26 temporary hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Dean Stark's Double Strike for 39 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey gains Restore, shortening negative statuses by 3 turns each! GS: Seraph Beast heals Ida Everstead-Rey! She gains 0 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei pants for a few moments after his strike. He stares down at Yarobeleedt. He should finish him, he should, but even his own screams threatened a different fate.
As the metal demon conceals himself in a protective cocoon, Fei looks into his reflection. Anybody else who happened to look would see a bloody face belonging to Fei Fong Wong.
Fei sees a reflection distorted into a thousand shards of light. Within that late a red headed man with pale skin smiles back at him. It matches the description. Didn't even Ramses say.....
"No..." Fei whispers. "NO!" It isn't true. It is too beyond belief even if, Fei, some part of you always knew.
It's you.
Fei steps back then again. "I..." He stammers. "I can't keep doing this."
The vision fades and Fei now just sees the face of a frightened child. His own face.
Fei turns and runs away.
FEI HAS FLED FROM YAROBELEEDT.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Yarobeleedt spews gibberish. He screams. He emits noises, all of them horrible, as he tries to make sense of what's happening before him. Ida turns, watches the bleeding, screaming Metal Demon slither away, trailing blood in his wake; she clenches two fists, holds the others up in anticipation of a counterattack that never comes.
Yarobeleedt, the vanguard of an army of proud alien warriors, is hiding under the covers in terror.
It's just like when K.K. came to visit her all those months ago. It's like everything since. He's a coward. He's a coward who can't face up to the world around him, just like her.
Isn't that a lark? Are you so blind to your own failings that you--
'IDA!'
Dean screams, and throws himself in her way again. She sees the horror in Fei's eyes, the self-reproach, and while she has no organs to speak of in this form, her guts twist all the same. He shouldn't feel that way--not about her. Hasn't he suffered enough without her hurting him even more just by being near him? By failing him? By becoming this?
Wind-blades slam into Ida's shoulders and torso, spraying off chips of stone and metal. She lets out a pained gasp, Malevolence leaking from the hole in her torso. Malfi's tendrils lash out, rushing past Dean and entangling Ida's arm. She tries to grab hold, if only to reel Malfi in for a close-quarters pummeling, but she can't get a grip. It helps that Dean is there, in her face, his very presence sapping her will to fight.
Healing winds rush into the crater in Ida's chest, numbing the pain. Metal and stone begin to patch themselves together. Ida looks down at the Beast, and her jaw trembles. As fearsome and uncontrolled as she looked at first, this is still the same terrified young woman that faced down Yarobeleedt in Adlehyde. This is still the same resolute young woman who led Dean through a town infested by Reapers.
Hellions are creatures of contradiction.
Ida takes several stumbling steps to the side. She doesn't so much dive off the bridge as slam through the edge, masonry shattering as her body suddenly becomes a projectile. She falls, her body tearing itself apart into streamers of shadow--and then, she's gone.
Where did she go?%
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Ida speaks. Layna wasn't sure what kind of voice she was expecting...but it wasn't that. She expects a counterattack, but it never comes. Something seems to come over Ida and she slams through the bridge, splitting apart and vanishing into the storm.
Layna walks up to the hole she made in her departure...and then sighs, falling backward and staring up into the sky.
"...Damn it all." She sighs, shaking her head. This was not how she pictured this going.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi withdraws her tendrils as Beast's healing spell takes hold, and watches impassively as Ida scrambles over the bridge. Die on her feet she might, but not today. Hopefully not tomorrow either. She moves to check on Yarobeleedt, who is badly injured. They both need to get to a safe place to regenerate. Perhaps an abandoned building nearby...
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean might, in other circumstances, be happy that his mere presence caused the person he was fighting to decide to give up hostilities. In these circumstances, Malfi is snaking tendrils to strike at Ida, and Yaro is cocooning, and Fei is running away screaming, and Ida vanishes in a puff of shadows, and and and... At least Beast's pleads were answered. Dean's ARMs vanish along with Ida, and he looks torn as he looks between Beast, Malfi, and Fei--Layna *seems* to be okay, and, uh, Yaro is Yaro--but... well, Fei's the one who's literally running away.
"Fei, wait up!!" he calls, making his choice. He gives Malfi, Beast, and Layna a quick nod, and then chases after Fei.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Beast has posed.
"Ida..."
No one is dead. Some are close enough. Others deal with wounds beyond the physical.
A thousand arms and not a single grasp strong enough to save anyone who does not wish to be saved.
The Beast of Lohgrin will see to the wounded. It is all she can do.