2022-04-02: Dancing with the Devil
- Log: 2022-04-02: Dancing with the Devil
- Cast: Riley Arwell, Xander Lovell, White Knight Leo
- Where: Harmonde - Port
- Date: April 02, 2022
- Summary: Mystere uncovers Riley's secret -- that he has actually been using his fell sorcery to brainwash Xander into being his loyal servant all along!
============================<* Harmonde - Port *>============================= Located on the far east coast of Zoara, Harmonde is a large seaside town. Home to a thriving fishing community, the sea and its bounties form the basis of its economy. But seafood isn't the only thing the town offers: it's also host to an up-and-coming seaside tourism industry, in no small part thanks to the town's connection to a local railway. This has spawned a local restaurant industry in turn of which The Red Shell is the local star. The townsfolk tend to be cheerful if plain-spoken, with that crusty veneer everyone wants from a person of the sea. The architecture leans towards the practical: storms come in off the seas with some regularity so in Harmonde, the people build things to last. BGM: Wild Arms 5 - The Street Corner at Sunset
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley is a siren, now, sort of! This is one of the bright spots for him about the whole 'cursed to serve an evil god' business. One of his favorite parts about having magic music is the general dismay that it causes to Xander, and so, as their days of peaceful reprieve from the curse stretch on, he is using the free time to experiment more and more with this ability with Xander as witnessvictimaccomplice.
Today he is set up on the boardwalk in Harmonde with his blood garden guitar, a live-grown instrument made from dark wood and blooming with red flowers. He strums tunes with various moods and ideas woven into them to see what sort of visible effect they might have on passers by. He is also making no effort to shield Xander from any emotional splash damage.
He has tried a tune of sorrow, one of yearning, one of joyful excitement... He has found that his tunes can generate compulsions in people--albeit mild and not beyond the ability of willpower to overcome. But this does mean that his songs have sparked tears, started arguments, and now, most recently, he is singing a gentle lullaby and trying to see if he can compel people to lie down for a nap in public.
This will probably have darker applications, later, if he can manage to pull it off successfully, but he's trying not to think of it so ruthlessly in the moment and focusing on the joys of being a public menace.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Surely, Xander had said once Riley had discovered this new power of his, You will use this power only for practical applications and not anything that will land us in more trouble.
So he's not surprised. Just annoyed. Well, not entirely -- because Riley keeps tugging annoyance into whatever new emotion he wants to experiment with today.
If you asked Xander, he'd tell you that Riley's ability to weave corrupted magic into song should be something he has an immunity to on account of sharing the same dark power. If you asked that dark power, however, it turns out the opposite it true. It's another cruelty from Valmar, if but a petal of it atop the entire hell garden of his life.
"You're exhausting," Xander quips at Riley through grit teeth, forcing back a grin that is not entirely his own after the last song. But then it becomes actually exhausting as the new lullaby saps the energy from his bones. Xander sighs, letting his shoulders slump down. His eye closes, even though he's still standing.
"...Ugh. I guess this one is fine."
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The dulcet notes of Riley's song drift across the boardwalk. A fisherwoman yawns into her sleeve, and leans against the wall of her boat, completely ignoring the rope she's supposed to be tying. On the nearby docks, several workers set down their loads, and converse amongst themselves--why do they feel so tired all of a sudden? A lemon-ice stall proprietor all but faceplants on her counter. The customers in line wobble, as if they, too, are ready to drift off...
"I knew it," someone whispers, on a rooftop high above Riley's impromptu busking spot. "This is far from natural. And there the villain stands, delighting in his villainry." The figure rises from behind the cover of a chimney, and slowly walks to the edge of the inn roof. "If it's a show they want..." The figure adjusts the tilt of their blue tricorne. White teeth gleam in the light. "...Then it's a show they'll get."
"HALT, VILLAIN!"
The voice cuts through the air, a sharp, forceful counterpont to Riley's song. Moments later, the top of the roof erupts; a pair of blue-and-white sparklers ignite, launching pyrotechnic flame into the air. Between them stands a shadow--a fluttering cape, a hand holding some sort of short staff, a horn...
"Whatever fiendish plans you have stop here and now!"
The figure is... White Knight Leo, but dressed in what could very generously be called a Filgaian officer's uniform. A bicorne hat sits atop his head; a matching domino mask covers the upper half of his face. He wears a long cape and a suit and brilliant white boots, and carries a cane with a dragon's head. It is all very, very blue, save for the black accents and the scarlet lining of the cape.
"Why have you enthralled the citizenry?! What vile power do you consort with! I am--"
"Mysterious Masked Hero, ~Mystere~!"
"--And I bid you--lay down your instrument of evil, and submit to righteousness! I will not see a single soul harmed by your fell sorcery!"
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley's voice falters to silence and his mouth falls agape at the sight of the agent of justice who has appeared before them. He shakes the lulling Xander.
"Xander, Xander, you have to see this!"
It's terrible, it's unfortunate, but also it's amazing! Even in his days as a wandering adventurer before the curse, Riley never met such a character as this. It's exactly the sort of person he might have imagined coming after him for his crimes in his most fanciful internal melodrama. And now it's real?!
But that doesn't mean he can let this person capture them and haul them off to prison for singing, of all things. (Why are you making this plural, Riley? Xander didn't do anything wrong that this guy knows about).
He cups a hand to shout back at his rooftop accuser.
"You've misunderstood the situation! I'm just an extremely talented performer with a very soothing voice!"
Both underscoring and immediately undermining this statement, he sets to playing again, this time sparing Xander from the wave of corrupted magic and sending all of that lulling energy toward Mystere as he sings a song of peace and calm that tempts one towards slumber.
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked White Knight Leo with Sing You to Sleep! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action. GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Riley Arwell's Sing You to Sleep for 0 hit points! GS: Delay and Drowsy applied to White Knight Leo!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander is among those who slump further, head leaning against Riley's shoulder as he threatens to drift off. Of all the manipulations of Riley's music, at least this is a welcome one. All the irritations of the day and every concern Riley is going to cause unwanted attention begins to drain out of him, and sleep promises to come without its usual struggle to get there.
HALT, VILLAIN.
Maybe if he doesn't open his eye, everything will stay peaceful. This is impossible as Riley shakes him awake, dragging his soul groggily back to horrible reality with Xander whining all the while.
God damn it, they're about to get arrested or something worse by a guy in a mask and well tailored suit and Xander can hear him speaking in blue and Riley sounds far too happy about all of it!
"Riley," Xander hisses, grabbing hold of him half to get his attention and half to maintain his balance. Once he finds it, he gets between him and this new stranger, stance lowered with aggression. "I think we should leave."
But their avenues of escape in this situation are unclear with that guy on a roof, dramatic and theatrical and why is this happening? It's Riley's fault, probably.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
The villainous busker does not stop playing. On the contrary, his attention--and his magic--are now focused solely on Mystere. The vigilante's ears twitch as the soothing tones reach them, and he starts to sag, bracing himself with his cane to stay upright. Whatever retort he was about to fire dies on his lips. His brain feels like it's being smothered in soft, velvety fog. Will our hero's pursuit of justice end before it's even begun?!
But this isn't Mystere's first tangle with mind-altering powers. He still has enough wits to bite the inside of his cheek--not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to provide a painful, grounding stimulus. He didn't hear most of what Xander said, but he looks down, and sees him throwing himself in front of the musician like a living shield.
"A charmed innocent?" Mystere breathes, misreading the situation entirely. "Have you no shame? No decency?" Mystere leaps from the roof, and lands in a three-point crouch, hands gripping his cane. A brilliant spark of white ignites at the cane's tip, racing down into the ground; it shudders beneath Xander's feet before erupting beneath Riley's. The ground shakes, crumbles, and drops away beneath him. Xander is slightly more fortunate.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Riley Arwell with Plaincracker! GS: White Knight Leo has entered Sage Stance! GS: Delay expired! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Xander Lovell with Leo Gets The Wrong Idea! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell used Defend! He takes White Knight Leo's Plaincracker attack on Riley Arwell on himself! GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks White Knight Leo with Blood for Blood! GS: Xander Lovell takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Leo Gets The Wrong Idea for 0 hit points! GS: Xander Lovell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xander Lovell partially guards White Knight Leo's Plaincracker for 75 hit points! GS: White Knight Leo suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood for 125 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"Did you hear that? He called you a charmed innocent..." Riley teases, though he's already worried about Xander stepping up to defend him. That is unlikely to nudge the situation in any sort of direction he likes. He does just want to leave at this point, but the soothing song doesn't seem to have put a stop to Mystere's determination.
Before they can escape, the hero jumps down and strikes the earth with his cane, sparking a fissure along the ground... Riley startles as he feels the ground beneath his feet give way. His heart leaps into his throat-- he doesn't know if he is about to fall ten feet or ten thousand, but the familiar panic rises up all the same as some deep part of his mind equates 'falling' with 'certain doom.'
"Xander, I love yooo-----oooou...." The last part drops off a bit anticlimactically as he ends up dangling from a rope of plant matter instead of breaking any of his bones.
"O-oh. Thank you." He scrambles back up the side of the newly formed chasm.
He emerges with his heart still racing, aiming an entreating and exasperated look toward Mystere. "Listen, this is a weird and amazing thing to be doing with your life, and I respect it, but you really need to do this to someone else! There are much more serious crimes in the world!" Including his own, on many other days!
He summons a red flower in his hand and drags a knife across the petals, coating it in some unknown poison as the start of a single motion that ends with slashing out toward Mystere, hoping to either drive him back or cut him and get something going in his bloodstream that will take the fight out of him. He deliberately chose something nonlethal--one that brings on the symptoms of a high fever; he has an inexplicable fondness for the over-the-top hero act, and this guy doesn't seem to actually know they're murderers... so maybe he doesn't need to die...
GS: Riley Arwell spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Riley Arwell has attacked White Knight Leo with Poisoned Knife Bite! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander glares at this new... 'hero'. Ugh, never mind, it's not even ironic, is it? They may not be a danger to anyone this second, but they're villains all the same. They've killed. They'll kill again, soon as they have to. If this Mystere, or whatever he calls himself, cut them down here, he'd be, by definition, a hero.
Maybe Xander should just consider him a brave volunteer for his part, saving someone else by being the next one offered to the Fangs, except he agreed not to go sacrficing excess blood to Valmar to and uuggh uugggggh.
"There's nothing charming about me!" Xander protests, both to Mystere and Riley, and perhaps taking a little too much advantage of Mystere's assumptions to swing at him with a knife while that can lights up like it's about to do something real annoying --
-- like splitting the earth open. "Riley!" Xander jerks around and snapping out his arm to grab hold of him. He's too slow to do it before Riley's arm drops from reach, and vines burst out of Xander's arm, extending to ensnare Riley. "Sh-Shut up!" he sputters as he pulls Riley up to safety, sparing him harm at the cost of the damage of thorns in his arm.
(And that's dark sorcery, if Leo's got any of the means to tell. At the very least, there's no apparent symbols or crests involved, and the vines are tearing through his flesh in a very blood magic fashion.)
And once Riley's up, Xander whirls to face Mystere, dagger in hand as he dashes at him. Where Riley calls on petals and poisons, Xander throws his whole self into the attack, reckless and unrelenting to sink the blade into Mystere. ...But like Riley, he means only to slash superficially across flesh instead of aiming directly for the heart or the throat.
Not because he's fond of this hero act at all, but because he doesn't want to hear Riley whimpering about it later.
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked White Knight Leo with Hellbent! GS: Xander Lovell enters a Counter stance! GS: Xander Lovell has entered Stance! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo solidly guards Riley Arwell's Poisoned Knife Bite for 82 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst! GS: CRITICAL! White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from Xander Lovell's Hellbent for 68 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Power Burst! GS: White Knight Leo enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Mystere was not expecting that knife. Xander's blade comes racing right at him--only well-honed reflexes keep him from taking it right in his heart. The vigilante twists to the side, presenting Xander with a narrower profile. There's a 'clink' as the knife goes through something metal beneath Mystere's jacket--chain mail?--and a bloom of red wells up on blue fabric. His eyes widen. His jaw trembles as he struggles for words. He jerks back, and sweeps his cane forward to get Xander's arm out of the way.
"What have you done to him!?" Mystere demands, his eyes blazing with fury as he rounds on Riley. And then...
The vigilante can only watch in horror as the definitely-ensorcelled man shoots vines out of his arm(?!) to rescue the man who brainwashed him, and something eerily familiar scrabbles against Mystere's nerves as he does so. No, Leo thinks. It can't be. The same power that false priest used against him. The heretical power from the Blue Star...
Mystere has no time to dwell on it, or on Riley's insistence that he loves his victim(?!). Both of them are coming at him with knives, and his left shoulder is bleeding, badly. Mystere grits his teeth, and settles into a defensive stance, holding the cane up one-handed like a rapier. He catches Xander's strike on the cane's body and turns it aside, though the man comes at him with enough force to throw him off-balance. He twists towards Riley, and sweeps the cane forward to intercept--but the musician's knife has already drawn blood, biting into his torso.
"You fiend!" Mystere snarls, stabbing the cane at Riley like an accusatory finger. "Brainwashing an innocent man, infecting him with fell magic--enthralling him into your service! Have at you!"
Mystere grips the cane just below the head, and twists his right hand. He pulls, and out comes a gleaming blade. Prismatic light collects on its shining surface; Mystere sweeps it out, and a spearing lance of light races for Riley. "LIGHT SPEAR CANNON!"
Mystere shifts his footing, turns to Xander. He takes a deep breath in. Atmospheric moisture starts to condense around him, forming a shimmering haze. He breathes out, and all that water forms a gushing torrent--a vortex of water aimed right for Xander's center of mass.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Riley Arwell with Light Spear Cannon! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Xander Lovell with Aqua Breath! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo takes 34 damage from Poison! GS: Drowsy expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Your next attack with the Counter flag will display with the name whargarble. GS: Xander Lovell's Disrupt Ward prevents an effect! GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks White Knight Leo with whargarble! GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Aqua Breath for 161 hit points! GS: Delay applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer! GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xander Lovell receives 100 temporary hit points. GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Riley Arwell takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Light Spear Cannon for 68 hit points! GS: Cover applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo solidly guards Xander Lovell's whargarble for 48 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Guard bonus and Gleam!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Brainwashing an innocent man, infecting him with fell magic--enthralling him into your service!
Riley lets out a short laugh. "You only got one and a half out of three accusations right!" He protests. He shoots a glance at Xander to see if he can catch him trying to guess which accusations Riley considers legitimate.
Despite being assailed by no fewer than two knives, the mysterious Mystere is still going strong, and answers them with a barrage of elemental magics. A lance of pure light nearly knocks Riley from his feet, leaving the blazing sting of justice(?) in its wake.
At this rate, the hero is really not going to let them get an opening to pass, is he...?
All this for a little bit of innocent, evil music!! Well, there's more where that came from.
"We need more power... Xander, our dance!"
With this strange proclamation, Riley tosses several orbs onto the ground. They don't seem to do anything dangerous in and of themselves. In fact, they start to... play music. They are recording spheres, each playing its own 'track.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p2nfxFcUeI
Guitar! Percussion! A second guitar on counter melody! They issue forth a lively tune and the Fangs really do begin to dance to it -- their movements synchronized or mirrored with no small amount of footwork, trading places, hand movements, poses, and turns. It is sillier and more playful than the types of dances Xander might do as part of their street performance act -- almost certainly Riley's handiwork, though it does end in the Fangs coming together for an intense tango-type step.
Despite the absurdity of it all, there has been a sense of building energy throughout, like storm winds gathering, crackling with the dark power of Valmar. At last, as the Fangs stand with hands clasped in an open embrace, they turn to face their enemy, calling their dark weapons to take form -- the scythe and shovel of Valmar -- which wind together into a corkscrew amalgamation that they drive into the ground.
The earth trembles, lines of eerie light flowing from the hybrid polearm down across the ground toward Mystere.
"Don't forget to put your love into it, Xander!" Riley says.
GS: Formation! Riley Arwell has attacked White Knight Leo with Laughing Fang! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Formation! Xander Lovell has attacked White Knight Leo with Snarling Fang! GS: Delay expired! GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! White Knight Leo takes a solid hit from Riley Arwell's Laughing Fang for 62 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Delay! Attack weakened! GS: ROU|LET|TE: Severe! White Knight Leo solidly guards Xander Lovell's Snarling Fang for 51 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Blood's a problem. Xander can smell it and sense it and his fingers squeeze tighter around the knife blade because there's a part of his soul that isn't his anymore demanding more of it.
... And it's going to have to be louder than the absurdity of this situation. "Excuse me -- I'm stabbing you?" Xander blurts in shock at Mystere, who continues trying to defend him as an innocent. Then he jerks his attention to Riley. "One and a half?!"
It's a beat of time before his cheeks turn red and he shouts his frustrations at Mystere instead: "Don't word it like that!"
Everything about Xander runs on will and tenacity. He knows where to put a knife, it's not the same as having the skill Mystere does to redirect him. He's thrown off balance in turn -- he didn't give himself much to begin with -- and turns back around only in time to throw himself headlong into an Aqua Breath with a wild flailing swing before he's tossed aside like a small dog's first time at the beach.
Xander drags himself up just in time for Riley's orbs to hit the ground. "What." He stares up at Riley. "What?! No. Absolutely not!" Music plays. Xander knows that Riley is completely serious. Riley is always completely serious. It's the scariest thing about him.
"Riley, I am not doing this!"
But he is, in fact, doing this. Glaring daggers into Riley or perhaps trying to will him to catch fire while every step of the dance remains perfectly executed in almost disturbing synchronization. Even those silly movements Xander should (and probably does) hate every second of. But that may suggest Xander's contributions are the movements with less mirroring and more dance holds, especially with him acting as the lead into it.
Or maybe Xander didn't contribute anything at all to this absurdity! Did you think of that?! Shut up!
"That's not how it works!" Xander sputters at Riley as the ground below Leo ripples.
Corrupt energy shoots up through the cracks: potent dark magic, unnatural and impure, heralding the arrival of a vicious maw crafted of earth and throbbing vines, open wide and bursting from the ground to snap up Leo with a fanged bite. Its structure pulses, at odds with itself and threatening to unravel. But Riley has given his demand (reminder?), and dark power weaves sundew through the maw, stitching it back together to maintain its shape as it attempts its bloodletting bite.
One bite is all it has, the force of it shattering itself the vegetation that makes up the maw breaking apart and slithering back into the earth like a scattering nest of snakes.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Mystere backpedals, glancing down at the orbs as though they could erupt at any moment, releasing dark magics--or worse. Instead...
A musical number.
The masked vigilante's eyes widen, and he shifts his weight back, settling into a low, stable stance. More of that vile energy surges through the ground, mirroring the flow of the poison in Leo's veins. He can sense it, just as surely as he senses the earth beneath his feet. Despite Xander's protests, and the everything about this situation, Mystere is... accepting everything with a straight face.
The earth unravels. The vicious maw strikes like a snake, clamping on to Mystere's thigh and drawing blood. In the next instant, Mystere's blade slashes clean through it, and carries through to Riley. Mystere is suddenly lunging forward, leaping at the fell musician and driving his blade forward like a stake. He lands next to him, whirls on Xander. "Your mind is not your own," he says. "I know not if I can break this curse--but I must try." Mystere lashes out, making a single, clean strike that goes from Xander's right hip to left shoulder. An inverted, prismatic after-image lingers in the air. It doesn't just cut flesh--it cleaves through life-force, through sorcery. Leo is only mortal. He cannot hope to break Valmar's hold on Xander.
But he has to try to break him free from Riley's wicked wiles.
GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Riley Arwell with Shining Falcon! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo has entered Hero Stance! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Xander Lovell with Soul-Cutting Blade! GS: White Knight Leo takes 29 damage from Poison! GS: Poison expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: Xander Lovell solidly guards White Knight Leo's Soul-Cutting Blade for 66 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xander Lovell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Xander Lovell activates Guard bonus! GS: White Knight Leo drains Xander Lovell! White Knight Leo gains 33 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Riley Arwell takes a solid hit from White Knight Leo's Shining Falcon for 178 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
One and a half?!'
"I like to think I enthralled you a little..." Riley explains. He is not helping his case with Mystere any, but that seems to be a lost cause for whatever reason.
Xander attempts to refuse his part in the dance. "Come on, the music's already playing!!" Riley argues, as if that isn't his own doing.
Xander relents, and the dance is danced -- Xander's glares throughout only seem to fuel Riley's enthusiasm. The summoned maw nearly unravels, but manages to hold long enough to sink its fangs into Mystere's leg. Riley gives a sigh of both relief and dissappointment. "I would have thought our bond would be stronger after such a nice vacation. At least it didn't fall apa--" Leo surges at him, his blade flashing. Riley's instinctive flinch comes too late to be much help in getting him out of the way, and the blade sinks into his side, blood seeping as it pulls free.
"Ah!"
His eyes widen as Mystere quickly turns away from him to try to slice the evil out of Xander.
"Don't you think this is getting out of hand?!" he demands, perhaps having forgotten that moments ago he attempted to summon a hellish maw from the earth to chomp on this man.
Valmar's power is still flowing -- all the more, perhaps, now that some of Riley's blood is on offer, and he taps into that well to summon an unnaturally large flower from the earth at Mystere's feet that attempts to wind around him as it grows and furls open to release a fragrant cloud of something that is likely to be dangerous to breathe.
"Do something unpleasant to him!!" he yells, not knowing quite what he summoned and feeling a belated pang of regret to realize he doesn't know how dangerous it will be.
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked White Knight Leo with See What Blooms! GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo! GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"I said don't word it like that!" Xander snaps at Riley, edge of panic creeping into his voice.
In the aftermath of calling the power of darkness through dance, Xander wonders if leaping off the docks into the ocean is his best current option. "It doesn't work like that," he repeats to Riley's disappointment.
But the maw was not enough -- not enough at all -- and the masked hero comes for them in kind. Mystere's words catch Xander off guard more than his movements do. Instinct tells Xander to defend himself, to bring up a dagger and try and block the blade. Hope, never dead, always a stupid, stubborn ember, tells him not to move. His dagger's edge is enough of a barrier that the strike catches his thigh and even breaks back into the shoulder, but saves some of the flesh between. But there's nothing he can do -- and nothing he tries to do -- at the cut directly to his soul.
It's a mistake. Obviously. Xander gasps out with a strange new pain lancing a curse too entangled with himself to be removed, Leo's sword catching on something deeply entwined. There's no way to cut through the darkness without cutting through Xander and destroying him along with it.
"Don't do me any favors," he manages through a growl, though perhaps not entirely to Mystere, because only after does Xander refocus his attention on him. "Tragically, my decision to be in his company is my own." Xander adjusts his grip around his blade, then sinks it into the wound Mystere put in his shoulder, drawing more blood and letting a vortex of thorned plants spiral out around him with a storm of red petals.
"I'm not exactly offering him fruit punch over here!" Xander he's talking to the flowers! (He forgets Riley talks to the flowers.)
GS: Xander Lovell spends 1 Combo on Poison! GS: Xander Lovell has attacked White Knight Leo with Rosaceae! GS: Xander Lovell has gained 1 Combo! GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action. GS: ROU|LET|TE: Low! White Knight Leo solidly guards Riley Arwell's See What Blooms for 31 hit points! GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Jam and Shieldbreak applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Guard bonus and Gleam! GS: White Knight Leo takes a glancing hit from Xander Lovell's Rosaceae for 96 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! White Knight Leo gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Poison applied to White Knight Leo! GS: White Knight Leo activates Evade bonus and Gleam! GS: Strain! Xander Lovell takes 62 damage!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
'I like to think I enthralled you a little...'
Mystere shoots Riley a look, an accusatory glare that lingers far too long. He doesn't have time for words. He feels corruption writhing through the dry earth, strands of perverse life against the relative barrenness of the Blue Star. When the vines erupt, Mystere is there to meet them. His blade hacks through a secondary vine in a single strike. Toxic sap sprays into the air, smoking as it hits the ground. Mystere reaches out with his free hand, tries to wrestle the flower away from his face--nothing good can come of anything born from Valmar. He holds his breath, but the spores seep in anyway, itching and tingling as they make contact with his skin. His vision swims.
"No," Mystere chokes out, as his head lolls towards Xander. "Don't--" Cough, cough. "Don't--not yet--!"
Brilliant crimson petals sweep around him. Thorns dig into his flesh. The Valmar-plants drink of his blood, and he feels it, feels his lifeforce ebbing. His arms are pinned to his sides. He can't cut himself free. Do the Fangs have the upper hand?
Mystere's body tenses. He grits his teeth and strains against the vines holding him in place. Corrupted lignin strains and tears. The plants rip apart, leaving Mystere bloodied and dizzied, but unbowed. He glances back at the dockside; most of the bystanders have fled, but a few daring (or foolhardy) souls have lingered behind. He needs to end this, and quickly, before someone else is hurt.
Mystere tucks his arms in close, and bends his right leg, holding it before him. He hops back and forth, shifting his weight from side to side--a bizarre stance, to say the least, especially to someone who's never seen Yevon's YKT-63 combat machina in action.
In a heartbeat, Mystere strikes. He sweeps his right leg low, trying to knock Riley off his feet--and as he falls, Mystere rises, plants his foot squarely in the center of his chest, and kicks. There's enough force behind it to send him flying, but there isn't the sort of crushing power that could break his ribs. Another hop, and Mystere is bearing down on Xander. He gives the man a sad, somber look as he executes the same strike, again.
GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Xander Lovell with Thrust Kick! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 2 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: White Knight Leo has attacked Riley Arwell with Thrust Kick! GS: White Knight Leo has gained 1 Combo! GS: White Knight Leo takes 29 damage from Poison! GS: Cover expired! GS: White Knight Leo has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Riley Arwell partially guards White Knight Leo's Thrust Kick for 189 hit points! GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo! GS: Cripple applied to Riley Arwell! GS: Riley Arwell activates Sufferer! GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from White Knight Leo's Thrust Kick for 205 hit points! GS: Cripple applied to Xander Lovell! GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Mystere gives Riley a withering stare as Riley teases Xander about being enthralled. Why is he taking it literally! If Xander were hypnotized, wouldn't he be a lot less grouchy about Riley ordering him around?!
Tragically, my decision to be in his company is my own.
As much as Xander attempts to inject this statement with bitterness, Riley finds it warming his heart all the same and gives him a fond little smile.
Relief battles with guilt as Mystere seems to at last be mobilized by the combination of Xander's tangling vines and Riley's poison.
Riley's eyes flash to Xander to see if he's in a state to move. Riley's got his own hand pressed to the wound in his side to slow the bleeding there, but Xander seems to have blood all over. He isn't sure how much of that is self inflicted. "Come on, Xander, let's--"
...and then Mystere simply tears free with the strength of his body.
Riley gapes. What kind of person are they dealing with...!? No wonder he's been able to get away with running around doing this crazy agent-of-justice routine if he's this powerful...
There is barely time to contemplate what kind of weird thing is coming from Mystere's new stance before a kick to Riley's chest sends him flying!!
Wait, they're flying really far-- they're going to be able to get away, this is what he wanted!! But -- but aaaa!!!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
They thorns get blood, but it's not enough. Bloodletting was never enough. Things would be so much simpler if it was. ... Still complicated and weird, but simpler. Riley's right, this is getting out of hand in more ways than one. He's left dazed, pressing his hand against his patched eye until Riley speaks out to him.
Xander snaps his attention up just in time to see Riley go flying.
"No!"
He snarls, turning to Mystere and then caught in that sad look of his. Why is he looking at Xander like that?! All the bite drains right out of Xander. He's rendered speechless in a raw, frozen moment of vulnerability.
One blink later and the ground is stolen out from under his legs.
...
...?
...??!?!?!
ding