2019-05-25: Cake... Accepted?
- Log: 2019-05-25: Cake... Accepted?
- Cast: Jacqueline Barber, Talia, Lydia Seren, Ivan
- Where: Thunder Plains
- Date: May 25, 2019
- Summary: Ivan tries to assassinate Jacqueline again, and Talia and Lydia help her fend him off. Lydia learns that getting Ivan to accept a cake is all in the delivery.
==============================<* Thunder Plains *>============================== The Thunder Plains, occasionally known as the Gandof Thunder Plains, are an open, barren landscape connecting Guadosalam to the Macalania region. It is an area that is constantly - yes, /constantly/ - bombarded by lightning and thunder. Crossing the plains was all but impossible due to the never-ending storm, until an Al Bhed named Bilghen set up several towering lightning rods to draw the storms' fury and provide travelers with a (comparatively) safe road. He was in the process of setting up the final tower when he was struck by lightning and killed, something which lesser minds would regard as irony, but which the faithful know is poetic justice for a blasphemer against Yevon. I mean, they'll still /use/ the road. Because Yevon wants them to. Clearly. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gea_xz-cJ8
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The Thunder Plains were a fairly dangerous location for the average traveler. The constant storms caused disruption, and the Fiends there were no joke, either. Passing through safely was only possible due to the lightning towers that had been set up throughout the plains, but more than one of them was falling into disrepair.
Jacqueline had noticed as much in her previous visits to the area and so, after some discussion, she's decided to bring a shipment of replacement parts over to the branch of the Travel Agency located in the Thunder Plains.
The Yevonites would probably frown on it if they knew, but the parts were hidden within crates of other, more acceptable goods. Even Jacqueline can be a little sneaky if it results in helping people...though it's possible someone else had made that suggestion to her.
At the moment, she makes her way through the Thunder Plains on a chocobo-drawn wagon. The bird has been equipped with the best lightning-resistant gear she could get her hands on - just in case.
But Jacqueline isn't alone here, of course - these days, she was reluctant to take long trips like this on her own.
And for good reason, as she'll soon find out...
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia took a job, of sorts: to protect Jacqueline Barber. She has spent more time with her, especially when she isn't near the Caravan Kinship or other people who might afford her some protection. She is sitting in the wagon, though not next to her. She sits behind her, in the covered section -- and her lips are pursed.
She still winces, a little, when she hears a thundercrack. The Thunder Plains are still never really safe. She looks side long at Jacqueline, and then smiles a bit.
"Ah, the chocobo isn't too spooked, no?" she says. "That is good! I would be worried about the poor thing, if so. And not so much rain, yet, either..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren came back to the Caravan with a sizeable pink box. She heard that Jay needed help so she has elected to join her on her trip. She has brought along the mysterious pink box and is sitting in the back of the wagon with it, arms wrapped around the box and snoozing. She drools a little on top of the box too because she's an animal.
She doesn't seem to be expecting an ambush naturally. An explosion of thunder crashes nearby and Lydia reacts to this by shifting her position and and rolling over to another side.
Maybe she figures Jay will avoid the lightning blasts. Or she just doesn't care if she gets blasted by one. Hard to say!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Jacqueline's recent habit of traveling with company--and having Ivan's sister for a bodyguard--has been an effective deterrent until now; on several occasions, Ivan has shadowed her, only to abandon the opportunity to attack her because she was never alone. But it can't wait forever. If Lubov decides that having Ivan as his only assassin is the same as having no assassins at all, he will cut his losses and send a hireling to finish them off -- possibly including Ivan as well as his marks.
It's a familiar threat, but one he's never wanted to test. Not because he's afraid of being killed. Or he doesn't think he is, anyway. But perhaps there is some strange comfort in living in a universe where he isn't certain if his father would pay someone to kill him if he were no longer useful.
At any rate, there is a feeling that time is running out, and Ivan is in a dark mood besides. Everyone has been treating his mission as some kind of inconsequential abstraction, as if his continued failure is a given. Starting a fight instead of getting a clean kill will be another mess, but maybe he should make another mess to remind them who he actually is.
The Thunder Plains are a naturally dim and misty terrain, making it easier to skulk unseen, provided you can avoid the place's inherent dangers. When Ivan makes his move, he calls a smoke cloud that thickens the obscuring mists to where you can barely see in front of your nose. He then rushes forward and leaps onto the wagon, trying to knock Jacqueline down from her seat and drop her to the ground, while simultaneously driving a knife toward her throat.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"She's very well behaved, thankfully." Jacqueline replies with a smile, leaning forward to give the chocobo an affectionate pat at the base of the neck. The chocobo lets out a friendly wark in response. "Honestly, I imagine she could make the trip on her own if I let her, but she prefers having people around."
The rain, though...that was a problem.
"Not yet, anyway...hopefully we can get to the Travel Agency before it does anything..." She murmurs, looking around with a frown.
Almost as she says this, a mist begins to roll in. Jacqueline pauses, pulling on her chocobo's reins to urge her to a stop.
"Is this...fog?" She reacts...and then comes to an abrupt realisation. "...No, it's- Everyone, look- !"
Before Jacqueline can finish her statement, she hears a rush of movement from the side. Jacqueline turns and raises a hand just as something impacts her, knocking her and the obscured figure to the ground below. It takes some effort to keep her head up - she'd be out cold if she had hit the ground solidly.
And there's another pressing matter, the dagger heading right toward her throat. Her hand had closed around it, the durable fabric their nonmetallic portions protecting her hand from the blade. But they won't protect her for long if she can't push the blade away, and she won't be able to hold onto it for long.
It's a familiar situation.
"I-Ivan, is that you...?" Jacqueline manages a guess. The last thing she needed was having another assassin after her, but as far as she knew it was just the one so far.
Meanwhile, the chocobo begins to squawk loudly in worry. If anyone hasn't realised what's going on yet, that would certainly get their attention.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"That is good, no?" Talia says to Jay. She looks at the chocobo with a smile. Then, she glances back at Lydia and her mysterious pink box. She hasn't asked her yet -- partly to avoid the distraction, but mostly because Lydia has been dozing for most of the time since she linked up with Jacqueline and her wagon. The former assassin watches her thoughtfully, and her head is turned when the mists begin to thicken... and darken.
The different whorls and swirls of smoke, compared to mist, make Talia realize something might be wrong.
Jay calls out. She turns -- she sees the figure that erupts from the shadows, and tackles Jacqueline to the ground. Her eyes are on the dagger; then, Talia moves, kicking off the back of the wagon into a leap. She throws her shoulder, hard, for his midsection and tries to knock him away.
"IVAN!"
DC: Lydia Seren switches forms to Freefall Shaman Lydia! DC: Talia switches forms to The Charming Sellsword!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
*SQUAWK*
IVAN!
Lydia's eyes snap open. She sits up and squints into the mist. The pupils of her eyes shrink back then push out as if they were trying to find some method to peer through the mist at whomever the attacker is. Who is probably Ivan?
That pink box remains mysteriously unopened. Whatever could it be?! Well Ivan knows. And Talia knows probably. Actually the only person who doesn't know is Jay since Lydia asked the chocobo if they wanted to eat it too.
Her arm twists around into the form of an arm length blade.
"Is that Ivan?" She asks.
And then she squints more.
"Is this because I tried to give you cake?" Rather than immediately jump to Jay's defense, she fastens some mediums to her side and waits to see if she can see what's going on. No doubt she'll be jumping in shortly but she was very caught unprepared this time.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
For a few tense moments, Ivan is locked in a struggle against Jacqueline with his grip pitted against hers, and her neck on the line if her strength should waver. But Talia throws herself from the cart after the two of them and body checks Ivan, sending him rolling into the mist. The initial smoke cloud begins to dissipate, allowing partial visibility.
"Of course it's not about the cake!" he shouts. Was Lydia here? He didn't notice her sleeping in the back. But fine. Whatever. She might as well be here.
Ivan finds his footing again, calling down a flurry of fireballs that spiral through the air as they crash toward the group. He trades his dagger for a shortsword in a flash of his ring, and surges toward Jacqueline again in a stab for her midsection, an energy pulse flying off his sword as it cuts through the air.
GS: Ivan has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Super Sonic Thrust! GS: Ivan has attacked Talia with Fire Swarm! GS: Ivan has attacked Lydia Seren with Fire Swarm! GS: Ivan has completed his action. GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a solid hit from Ivan's Super Sonic Thrust for 103 hit points! GS: Riposte! applied to Ivan! GS: Talia takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Fire Swarm for 57 hit points! GS: Disrupt! applied to Talia! GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Ivan's Fire Swarm for 126 hit points! GS: Disrupt! applied to Lydia Seren!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Just as Jacqueline's afraid Ivan's strength is going to win out over hers, Talia comes to the rescue with a shoulder tackle. It knocks him away, and with a sigh of relief Jacqueline's arm falls away.
Shakily she tries to get to her feet. If she hadn't figured it out already from Talia's shout, the response to Lydia was all Jacqueline needed to confirm that this was Ivan.
"...Wait, you got him cake??" Jacqueline asks, confused for a moment. She hadn't heard anything about this, at least that she remembered!
It isn't long, though, before Ivan's upon her. Jacqueline's a little more familiar with what he's capable of now, so she tries to sidestep out of the way of the attack she knows is coming...but the obscuring smoke, though partially dissipated, prevents her from getting a good look at the terrain.
One of her boots gets caught in a fissure in the ground, almost causing her to trip. It's not enough to take her out of his attack's range - she lets out a gasp as the energy pulse flies past her, leaving a long slash across her side. With a wince, a hand goes toward the wound.
"Is it...true, that you attacked Catenna...?" Jacqueline asks, as she shifts her footing to find more solid ground.
Nearby, the chocobo begins to fret. Jacqueline glances in her direction, and sends her a wordless signal.
'Go'.
The chocobo worries for a moment...but, after some hesitation, begins to move. It'd get dangerous here soon - Jacqueline didn't want her to get caught in the crossfire.
As she does this, Jacqueline draws out a pair of bottles, each one filled with pale green liquid. She doesn't take any for herself, however, instead tossing one each to Talia and Lydia.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Talia with Swiftness Solution! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Lydia Seren with Swiftness Solution! GS: Jacqueline Barber has gained 1 Combo! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Lydia Seren takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Swiftness Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Quick! applied to Lydia Seren! GS: Talia takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Swiftness Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Quick! applied to Talia!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I mean it's the day after I tried to give you the cake!" Lydia shouts. "It sort of feels like it's about the cake!"
She promptly gets blasted by fire which, as you might predict, melts a fair chunk of her body into sludge, particularly around the facial area. She really needs to figure out a better way to deal with fire on skin than just giving up on it one of these days.
"Yeah I got him a cake!" Lydia says which probably only sounds weirder coming from her in a state like this. "It was Ethius's idea!" That's maybe weirdest of all???
"And yeah Catenna beat him up before!" Lydia adds. "She said so when I was asking Ethius about advice on the cake!"
She catches the green liquid, downs it without a second thought and immediately blurs forward in a surge of movement and tries to slice that metal arm blade towards Ivan's own face. There is more hesitation in her movements than last time but with that potion it may be tough to spot.
"I don't know it's like the day after you said it wasn't about the cake so it sort of feels like it's about the cake...!"
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ivan with Metallurgy! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia is grateful when the smoke clears, but not entirely pleased. She had hoped, on some level, that this was a bandit -- some local bandit, that she could scare off, instead of her brother. The fireballs come crashing down -- and even as Talia darts between a couple, she finds that they keep her away from Jacqueline for a moment.
And one comes so close that it singes her side.
That leaves Jay and Ivan alone, which sends a chill through her. She catches the thrown bottle; her thumb pops the cork out, and she takes a long drink. She tosses the bottle aside, leaving it to smash on the ground, and then she bolts forward. Talia leaps as she gets close, twisting around. "You have to--you have to stop, Ivan!" she calls out. She does a twist at her waist--
--and then slams her foot for her brother's cheek. When she does, light bursts off it with a forceful release of ki. "Demonic Swallow Kick!"
There is a briefly confused look, in midair, at all this talk of cake.
GS: Talia has attacked Ivan with Demonic Swallow Kick! GS: Talia has gained 2 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Ivan guards a hit from Lydia Seren's Metallurgy for 72 hit points! GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from Talia's Demonic Swallow Kick for 41 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I was already doing this a long time before the cake! I don't know why you would bring cake to someone who was doing this!"
Yelling back and forth with Lydia about cake is distracting enough that Ivan isn't able to press the attack before Lydia and Talia both step in. When Lydia draws close enough for him to see the terrible damage she's carrying from the fire, his eyes widen and he recoils a bit -- but she's coming at him in a blur with a blade, and that demands his attention. He catches the blade on his bracer, driving it off course away from his face, though it does cut a path across his upper arm as it finishes his arc. No sooner has he dealt with this than Talia flies at him, also at turbo speed. He tries to sidestep the kick but isn't quick enough -- it hits just slightly off the mark, though, and rather than dropping him to the ground, it upsets his balance and leaves him with a throbbing jaw and his bones vibrating from the shockwave. But he manages, barely, to keep on his feet.
"Catenna is my next target, yeah. Apparently I've got a backlog."
He sweeps his hands out, and a wind picks up, scattering and swirling the mist. Pinpricks of light flicker to life into crackling, fizzing stars that float around him.
"Talia, you know what this is, yeah? You'll want to keep clear."
The stars sweep forward in a rush of wind towards Jay, detonating when they draw close. Meanwhile, a pillar of fire flares out around Ivan, as he tries to drive back Lydia and Talia and split the 'battlefield' to distance them from Jacqueline.
GS: Ivan has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ivan has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Stars of Fury! GS: Ivan has attacked Talia with Burning Pillar! GS: Ivan has attacked Lydia Seren with Burning Pillar! GS: Ivan has completed his action. GS: Jacqueline Barber critically Guards a hit from Ivan's Stars of Fury for 35 hit points! GS: Talia takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Burning Pillar for 50 hit points! GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Burning Pillar for 52 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I am well familiar with what you can do, brother!" Talia shouts back at him, though there is a flash of fright in her eyes when she sees the pinpricks of light swirling about his fist. "Jacqueline! Get back!" she calls out with alarm, before she throws Mirage as the fire comes rushing at her. Heat washes over her, her face rddening.
But Mirage slams into the ground next to Ivan, and Talia's body erupts into strands of shadowstuff. Those shoot through the flames, unharmed by it, as she reappears. The truth is, she isn't sure who Catenna is. She doesn't find her opinion on her dying at her brother's hand affected by that.
When she reforms, she has her hand wrapped about Mirage's hilt. She yanks it from the stone of the Thunder Plains, while her parrying dagger is torn free from the sheath atthe side, and she slams the weapon, trying to cut into the underside of his bracer.
"I can't let you hurt them, no?" Talia says. "If I have to, I will cart you back--" She doesn't know where she will cart him back. "I will figure... something out, Vanya!"
GS: Talia has attacked Ivan with Point-Warp Slash! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ivan takes a glancing hit from Talia's Point-Warp Slash for 81 hit points! GS: Riposte! applied to Talia!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah but it seems like you're doing this a third time," The horrifying metal skull that is Lydia's head says. "Because I tried to give you cake and now you're trying to prove you don't deserve cake by trying to murder Jay again! I'm going to be angry if you kill Jay over cake!"
Wait she would probably be angry either way but ... but let's not point that out okay?
She grimaces when she actually cuts Ivan even though that doesn't make any sense since she was going for the face but let's not point that out either.
Jay gets a call of alarm though Lydia can understand it well enough to jump backwards from the erupting flame. It still licks at her arms but luckily she is sable to pat it out with her spare hand before getting any farther.
She sees Ivanblood on her blade and with a startled grimace she reforms that blade into a hand and says, "Mrgrgrgr...."
She looks towards that pink box.
She frowns.
She runs towards it and picks it up opens it up, and hefts out a blitzball shaped cake right on out of it. It looks a bit like this: https://i.imgur.com/zRo1VNU.jpg
And she says, "Ivan! It's okay if it's about the cake but you have to stop!"
This sounds like it's an attempt to get Ivan to stop but that's not what it actually is. The actual goal is to get Ivan to RETORT.
So she can, you know, toss the cake platter and cake into the air, leap after it and with a,
"METEOR CAKE!"
--kick it into Ivan's face with blitzball match force.
But it's still, you know, a cake. So...
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ivan with METEOR CAKE! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Please react using the attack number in +queue. GS: CRITICAL! Ivan takes a solid hit from Lydia Seren's METEOR CAKE for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"...I-it was??" Jacqueline replies. That...just made her even more confused. Ethius didn't seem the type to suggest giving cakes to people. And she's not sure what she thinks about the cake, either.
She might've been nice about it, but he was trying to kill her.
Jacqueline freezes in place, though, as Ivan confirms that he was going after Catenna - and implies that it won't be the last time.
"...Leave her alone." She replies. There's a sharpness to her voice and her expression that's been absent throughout their previous encounters - and she seems to notice herself as well, as she softens quickly.
"...Please." She adds. She looks a little embarrassed...but she doesn't have time to dwell on it as Talia shouts out a warning. Jacqueline gasps as a series of lights flicker into existance around Ivan. She throws her hands forward and a barrier surges into existance around her right as the stars descend upon her.
They erupt all around her, tossing up dust and debris that obscures the view.
For a moment she can't be seen...but then, a bottle of lavender liquid is hurled out from within, heading toward Ivan's feet. He might recognize this as the weakening solution from one of their previous encounters.
The smoke clears and Jacqueline is standing there, breathing heavily. The ground around her is torn and cratered from Ivan's attack, and though she doesn't seem to have been overly harmed, defending against it seems to have taken quite a bit out of her.
GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from Jacqueline Barber's Sapping Solution for 0 hit points! GS: Weaken! applied to Ivan!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Rather than staying clear of Ivan's fire, Talia warps inside the expanding wave, surprising him. He steps back raising his arms in defense, as she slams a powerful blow into his bracer. There's enough force behind it that it buckles the metal in on his flesh, effectively biting through. Ivan makes a Bit of a Face as he stifles a stronger reaction to his armor being set to cut permanently into his arm. Some blood drips out of the bracer at the wrist.
Lydia gives her grand unifying theory of cake, explaining how she believes this attack ties back to the events of the previous day.
"It isn't because of that! It isn't about that!" he protests, again. In focusing his attention on this defense, he falls into Lydia's trap. The blitzcake flies skyward, and Lydia kicks it down, driving it through the air on a collision course with Ivan's face.
It connects explosively, but it is, after all, a cake. Frosting and cake bits fly everywhere, but a significant portion remains adhered to Ivan's face. He takes a devastating blow, if only psychologically, and stares back at her for a few moments, stunned.
In the end, Lydia found a way for him to accept the cake, after all.
With all of... this, going on, it's only belatedly that he's able to see what became of Jacqueline amidst the explosions -- he looks back to find her largely unharmed. And a lavender mist is already seeping out of the bottle she tossed at his feet. He coughs, backing away from the radius of the cloud, but he's already taken a good dose of it, and his limbs are beginning to feel heavier. Frustration wells up. He didn't want to see her hurt, exactly. He doesn't want to see people burnt and mangled by his fire. But killing Jacqueline Barber is the only path forward.
He rushes her again, leaping into the air and flinging a rocky-cored fireball at her as he strikes at her heart with his blade.
Around the rest of the battlefield, it begins to rain molten fire. Whether this is another scattering tactic or an expression of Ivan's emotions is unclear.
GS: Ivan has spent 3 Combo on Gatling, including 3 on Gatling! GS: Ivan has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Hell Pyre! GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Ivan has attacked Talia with Scorching Rain! GS: Ivan has attacked Lydia Seren with Scorching Rain! GS: Ivan has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riposte expired! GS: Ivan has completed his action. GS: Talia takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Scorching Rain for 74 hit points! GS: Ivan assumes the Avenger stance! GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Ivan's Hell Pyre for 84 hit points! GS: Lydia Seren takes a glancing hit from Ivan's Scorching Rain for 74 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
There is a little guilt at seeing that she hurt him -- but Talia is good at compartmentalizing that, especially knowing what can be healed. She ducks backward, then, and her eyes catch the cake flying down. Talia looks surprised -- and then she does a quick hop backward, and sees Ivan leap and fly at her.
While fire rains down from the sky. Talia rushes forward. She ducks under one stream of flame, then she twists aside a second, and is burnt along the side by a third, before she hops over a fourth. She comes down as he strikes at Jay's heart with Memory.
She uses Mirage as a counterweight, to turn around in mid-air -- and then come crashing down at Ivan from behind.
She slams the back of her arm at the base of his neck from behind, trying to smash hi down at the ground.
GS: Talia has attacked Ivan with Elbow Crush! GS: Talia has gained 1 Combo! GS: Disrupt and Quick expired! GS: Talia has completed her action. GS: Ivan takes a glancing hit from Talia's Elbow Crush for 55 hit points! GS: Ivan enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Haha! The cake is yours now! No takebacks! You might as well lick it off your face now!" Wait that might heal his wounds you know how dessert works in this universe! Too late she made the suggestion. She is still kind of upset that she had to resort to this method rather than have some cute cakeout but she can convince herself this was the best method for fending off Ivan when--
--OH NO IT AS A TERRIBLE METHOD FOR FENDING OFF IVAN HE IS STILL THROWING FIRE EVERYWHERE.
Fire slams into Lydia's side, glancing off her body but still burning enough to cause her to hiss in pain. She flubs the landing and hits the ground on her side.
"Mrgrgr..." Lydia grumbles as she tries to stand herself up. She exhales softly and thent stands up. She's dripping now. It's unpleasant.
She reaches for her silver medium and Rigdobrite flickers into the air upon her summoning. He still answers her calls every time no matter how ridiculous her reasoning is but, well, sometimes she's just happy to see her Guardian pal.
She smiles up at the Guardian and shouts, "He's over there!"
She points towarsds Ivan.
Rigdobrite spins around for a bit before he starts to very rapidly plummet from the sky.
Towards Ivan.
ARTIST REDITION OF RIGDOBRITE: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/wildarms/images/b/bd/WACFRigdobriteArt.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100216070137
GS: Lydia Seren has attacked Ivan with Meteor Crash! GS: Lydia Seren has gained 1 Combo! GS: Disrupt and Quick expired! GS: Lydia Seren has completed her action. GS: Ivan completely evades a hit from Lydia Seren's Meteor Crash!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline stares as Lydia...spikes a cake into Ivan's face?? She blinks once, twice, and then tries to take the time to back away while Ivan is distracted.
...Not distracted enough as it turns out. He's upon her next, leaping into the air and sending a ball of flame down toward her. She draws her cloak about her...but there's a pained intake of breath as the fireball's unexpectedly solid core strikes her right arm. She staggers backward with a wince and gasps as he closes the distance, driving his blade toward her.
Just as it seems like it'll stab right through it catches in her cloak, turning it away. Rather than cloth, it seems to be made of a material as durable as steel but flexible enough for a garment.
This'll give her the time to step out of the way as Talia comes in...and Rigdobrite drops down from above.
This works for Jacqueline - she's at a disadvantage at melee range. And what's more, from the way she's gingerly handling her right arm, she must be at a bit of a disadvantage...
It's with her left arm that she draws out a bottle. This one, too, is hurled at Ivan's feet. It has a lavender color like the last one, but darker. It emits a plume of lavender flame, but the real danger is in the fumes that waft off of it, that seek to lull those who take them in into a pleasantly restful sleep.
It might sound nice, but maybe not on a battlefield.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has spent 1 Combo on Poison, including 1 on Gatling! GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Ivan with Apothecary's Fire! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
As Ivan catches Jacqueline's cloak with his strike, and winds back for another, Talia comes crashing in behind him, driving a painful blow into the back of his neck, the momentum of which also smashes him into the ground. He reels for a bit, making a seemingly perfect target for Lydia's meteor friend.
However, sometimes panic works with Ivan rather than against him. When he sees the bizarre rock with a face coming for him, instinct takes over, and he springs into motion, flipping through the air away from the soon-to-be impact site, and landing in a crouch. Bam!! The ground rumbles and air rushes by him, and he pauses a moment to thank fortune that his skull is still intact.
In the meantime, though, another small vial has landed at his feet, issuing more scented smoke that he doesn't really notice until he's coughing on it.
He curses and kicks at it, thinking it to be another vial of the stuff that weakened him earlier. He does feel -- heavier, but it's nothing he can't push through, he's sure. He wipes cake from his face, scanning the battlefield and trying to regroup. He only needs one good strike -- why has be been so unlucky? Why has Talia been able to shadow his every move? He advances toward Jacqueline again, but this time his steps are leaden -- just push through it, push through it!
But while he says that inside his head, he slows instead, blinking, forgetting somehow what he meant to do.
Kill his target! This is the middle of the battle! He can't fail again, not again! What is he doing!
But he really can't keep going, it would be so good to just rest a bit first...
As these two different forces battle in his head, Ivan sinks slowly down to the ground, dazed and drowsing, but still just alert enough to be faintly surprised and indignant about his own actions.
"...Am I having another flare..?"
He couldn't be that cosmically cursed, could he?