2017-05-14: Follow the Butterfly
- Log: Follow the Butterfly
- Cast: Virginia Maxwell, Gwen Whitlock, Ethius Hesiod, Lemina Ausa, Jean, Maya Schrodinger, Jacqueline Barber, Hiro, Seraph Ragnell, Lucia, Corwynt, Zed
- Where: Adelyn Ranchlands
- Date: 5/14/2017
- Summary: In the ruins of Lahan, a group finds a Knight and their sword, and a Dreamer with her butterfly. As one group goes to deal with the Knight, the other deals with the Dreamer. (This scene ran concurrent with Fertile Soil, and starts where the two scenes diverge).
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
In the midst of what was once proudly called Lahan floats ...
A shimmering violet butterfly.
It floats, aloft on a bed of gentle breezes free of worries, seemingly unfettered by the thick, cloying sense of Malevolence that grips the air. And where one follows its trail, it heads towards some of the highest portions of Lahan, a nigh-broken tower that was once used as a weathervane along with a water storage, to one side of the blast zone, in the opposite direction from where the sword choked with Malevolence lies.
The butterfly cascades along, and lands at the gloved fingertips of a woman seated at the tallest portion of town, upon the weathervane.
A woman who's been missing from Adlehyde since a few days ago, abruptly. A woman with long white hair, tied into a side-braid with a black ribbon worn as a headband. A woman in a long, extravagant dress of opulent make, with an umbral brown and dark cream colouration. A familiar young woman, gazing down upon you with shimmering eyes filled with a child-like innocence... a child-like innocence, filled with cruelty. The eyes who gazed forth to seek the world out there, spread aloft on white wings higher than anyone ever could...
The eyes that flew too close to the sun, too quickly. Undeniably, it is Virginia Maxwell, despite her colours.
She lets go, and the landscape immediately distorts -- a sickly feeling rather distinctly identifiable as Malevolence overwhelms the area. The floor rapidly shifts from charred grassland to checkered marble, black and white. Spiral rose towers streak haphazardly into the skies, boldly defying legible and plausible geometry. Parapets and ramparts burst inbetween them, caked in frosted icing and stacked with fluffy red velvet layers and topped with giant strawberries, evoking the image of a child's dreamlike castle. Intricate coils of delicate filigrees lace the tower she sits on, which hangs with strange decorations -- stars, flowers, a crescent moon, like a child's mobile.
Around her dreamlike tower, the ground rapidly distorts, limbs bursting out of the ground and heads cracking as vile creatures rise to adopt a form suited for her:
Toys.
Twisted hussars with tall helmets wielding bayonet rifles, a giant teddy bear with a warped eye and an awful claw, a rocking horse whose eyes are stained with bloodstained tears. They surround her, and she giggles brightly as she spreads her arms and lets the butterfly fly into the distance.
These are undoubtedly Hellions, minor ones, but Hellions nonetheless.
"Maaaaaaaa~yaaaaaaa~! Hiiiiii~roooooo! Jeeeeeean! Lemmmmyyyyy! Heeeeey!"
She calls out ringingly, her voice free of worry and chipperly so, waving both her arms. Yet, there's a foreign quality to the timbre of her throat. Something that so subtly warps her voice and makes it unpleasant to hear.
"Ahhh, I didn't know you all'd come all the way out here...
I know it was somewhat sudden, but I'm okay now."
There's a ringing and amorous giggle as she breathily gasps, and spreads her arms once more and twirls around in a whirl of skirts.
"Isn't it all beautiful?
I've finally found the courage to look, Maya.
This is what I found, deep within my heart.
I don't have to be a burden to you anymore."
Her eyes shimmer, positively laced with the darkness of Malevolence as she cups her hands to her cheeks.
"I don't have to be afraid anymore......"
DC: Virginia Maxwell switches forms to Dark Dreamer Virginia!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"I knew it was bad, but this is just..." The courier, Gwen Whitlock, is there, having arrived with Xantia and Rosaline. She regards the landscape of Lahan with a grim frown, having already taken off her glove and rolled up her sleeve to allow the Mockingbird ESR to stand ready. "If I knew what was gonna happen here the last time I delivered a package here, maybe I woulda' stayed a bit longer." Her eyelids weigh heavy over blue-grey eyes. Though, maybe...
No. It was better that she didn't know, right? If she knew, it would have weighed even heavier on her heart. Ignorance is bliss, right? A silver lining.
She looks to Rosaline. "So you can see it now too? I mean, I'm kinda glad I ain't alone, but at the same time, this has got to make things harder on ya." As they join Ida and Talise's group, Gwen looks over everyone. "Ah, there's Sorey and the gang down there!" Her face lights up, silently pumping a fist in the air.
Then she sees Rose, going towards the sword. "H-hey! Miss!" If Rose doesn't hesitate, Gwen breaks into a small jog, though the courier's isn't certain she'd be able to intervene with Rose before she can reach the sword. "Let's not go touchin' things!"
The ground shifts beneath her boots as she runs, causing the courier to stop. ".... What..." Gwen tilts her gaze upwards towards the source of the voice. "... G-ginny?" Her body sags as she stands still. "Ginny, why are you...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The strange white-haired man with the half-hidden face lowers his hand away from said face as the landscape unnaturally shifts. Changes. They don't coalesce clearly into the patterns the more spiritually attuned would see, but the sensations. The vague shapes...
His head moves rapidly to size up all that are here, as though attempting to cling to some tether of familiarity that he could confirm persisting between then, and now.
"This is Lahan." The words come out evenly, in that measured tone as always. It's unnatural - it should be tinged with fear, yelling with denial, if he's capable of seeing even a fraction of what some of the others around him are. He knows nothing about the strange spinning girl ahead of them, or the names that are being called out. His stake - curiosity - does not tether him as deeply.
"This is a place of tragedy." His hand goes back to his face, a developing Resonance finding itself at a stalemate with whatever mental fortitude has allowed him to journey as deep as he has. He has been to this fallen village twice. He... knows how it should appear. Whatever is happening...
"What is she doing?" He asks of no one. He's not expecting to be heard. He probably didn't even mean to ask it out loud.
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Lemina, unfortunately, has been mostly busy wth some of her own explorations; it's best if the Vile Fiends aren't together one hundred percent of the time, given the constant pursuit, and all... ... buuuut they're still a team, and ultimately, Lemina likes spending time with her friends!
Even scary time. Like now! Lemina, as an experienced mage, is among the more sensitive of her party -- and even with her experience, she feels a little unnerved -- maybe even sick. She looks to Lucia frequently, hoping that the other woman knows better what to do or how to approach this. ... each time she looks, she spots that distress and begins to shift uncomfortably.
Things only get worse when she's actually addressed. The call of that familiar voice makes her turn her head straight up toward it, ignoring even the sword that Lucia says they need to get. Her hand moves down toward the gear she wears at her side.
Her hand quivers. Bow, or staff? Bow, or...
Her fingers wrap around her staff, and she takes a firm step toward Virginia. "No..." she says, quietly at first. "No!" she insists, with a little more force. There's no snide comments about Virginia and hair bleach, no comments about what she should be afraid of -- just the same monosyllabic rejection.
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
It's not strange to Jean, to see death.
She hasn't shared why with her friends, but seeing these ruins, the marked graves, they all signify things familiar to her. The awful feeling in the air is something as well. Whatever it is, whatever it has been...
It speaks the same language as what she knows. Pure destruction. Raw devastation.
But it's more like what she saw in the Grotto, too. Jean, too, feels ice in her gut, though she walks as if nothing has happened. She looks around carefully, not ignoring the hair standing up on the back of her neck but not letting herself be slowed by it, either. But she doesn't only see and feel something tickling at her fear centers. No, there's...
There's that feeling, that presence. Is it Malevolence? That's not something Jean knows muh about, but she forces herself to breathe in what feels like horrid air, looks over her companions and what they're approaching, hands down at her sides.
She could be a perfectly ordinary dancer otherwise, looking carefully, because who wouldn't look carefully? Maybe in better circumstances she'd be offering the party a joke or two. But these are not better cirumstances.
By instinct though, her steps are silent, even given her jewelry.
And she sees ahead--
"Hiro!" Bounding from the back of the group, Jean did hear the pronouncement, and she rushes upward to grip Hiro's arm and Ruby's mouth, pulling both back bodily. "Shh!" She hisses. "That's the Shepherd!" She'll let go only once both are quiet, at which point she'll lan around them to have a look.
Murmuring, "Sorry about tha--"
Lucia is just walking along. Jean's shoulders drop. "Why didn't I see that coming...?"
"Come on."
Jean's sensed it, the Malevolence. But she hasn't said a word about it to Lucia.
But right now isn't a matter of the journey. It isn't a matter of old difficulties. It's about the butterfly skirting at her vision as she starts to move out after Lucia, as she stteps out to see a familiar young woman with such innocence. A tower, a castle, a...
Jean's eyes widen. "Virginia!?" This finally gets shock out of her, before the voices start--well, the voice. Her own name is called among them. But that weird quality to her voice registers, unsettles.
"What did they do to you...?" She stares, and shakes her head. "Hiro, we have to help her. We can't leave her like this! Everyone--"
She stops and looks to Lemina, looks to Lucia again.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Ah.
That would be why.
Lie all she might about her reasons for putting one foot in front of the other, about artefacts and righteousness and glory and purpose and all of those things, the real reason for the Schrodinger woman's journey from the cozy confines of her study in Adlehyde to the shattered remains of Lahan is right there in a whorl of twirling skirts and ethereal butterflies. Virginia Maxwell, the carefree and whimsical ray of light shone into her cynical life, had vanished. And she wanted to find her.
That's it.
"Virginia--what have you... done?" Maya's question is hardly above a whisper, but in such dramatic circumstances, such things carry as easily on the breeze as any shout or cry. "What happened to you?" it is asked with none of her usual flair or dramatics, but the airy lilt of one torn from their other half unexpectedly. Of all the explanations that underlie the girl's reason for vanishing, this was not one that she expected. Not this twisted... simalcrum that dances before her.
"You were never a burden, you idiot--!" ultimately, that retort is cut short by her alarm at the sickly pulse of wrongness that thrums through the world all around her. The ruins Maya stands on warp and twist into a part of the animated ramparts before her very eyes. The blonde grabs worryingly at her own head and groans in an unknowable agony at the wrongness of the castle leeching its way into the world, an assault on her delicate and powerful--but unguarded--spiritual senses. But are those tears of pain in her eyes, or of fear and worry...?
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
...Virginia? Jacqueline looks up. She'd seen her once before - at the Batical Grotto. She was looking...quite a bit different this time, though. And then, it happens - a wave of Malevolence sweeps over them, forcing Jacqueline to her knees. And when she finally manages to get back onto her feet, things look...different.
"What in the world...?" Jacqueline breathes out, looking around in concern. She looks up as Virginia begins to speak, and monsters that would be amusing were the situation not so...grotesque.
This...this wasn't connected to the events at the Hollow, was it?
A hand draws towards the bag at her waist and Jacqueline edges back. She doesn't draw any Crests just yet. Was this all...real, or just a hallucination?
This couldn't be real, yet...
Every part of her mind was on edge.
She was shaking.
She glances over towards Maya to ask about the situation, but closes her mouth when she sees her reaction. She had hoped she might have some idea what had happened, but...
"We...have to do something..." Jacqueline mutters.
But what? What could they possibly do?
DC: Maya Schrodinger switches forms to Gunslinging Heroine!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Jean stops him for a moment, pulling him back into cover. For a moment the youth is pressed up against the cliffside, while Ruby just gives a little, "Mmf- MMPH!" "Wait really? Sorey's here?" That made sense. Wherever malevolence was, of course Sorey would be here, he just didn't expect it right now.
"It's okay. It's okay." Hiro sees some- things as he rounds that corner.
*A Shepherd Purifying- his blade stuck in the ground.
*A Wrong-Looking Black Blade- stuck in the earth.
*Lucia walking right by him - declaring they must retrieve the sword.
There's no question in his mind which sword. It's gotta be the wicked looking one. However- "Lucia wait!"
-that doesn't change the fact that the Shepherd is right there!
And that's when things get strange. Like a dark heat haze, the landscape distorts- creating a superimposed image of twisted sweets and parapets and an army of toys. It's sort of a surreal moment- this breakthrough. As before the most he'd been able to sense was Meebo when he was angry, and Ragnell- well, when she was having a bad day.
"Ginny... Ginny! What's- what's happened to-" Ruby flaps from Hiro's shoulder to land on his head, "Oh no. Nonononono." Within moments Ruby's denial echoes Lemina's. As Hiro gets a better look, and the realization sets in, pupils dilating as he realizes it perhaps after all the others. "Virginia..." He says dully, "What's going on? You're not seriously..."
He remembers a girl trying to order a fancy salad at a seedy saloon, a girl warding off their pursuers, offering her help to strangers in a strange land, stumbling back into their camp delirious from exhaustion, trying so hard to be acknowledged by Maya.
But most of all he remembers a friend.
Although the malaise from the malevolence is settling in, he calls out, "Virginia this isn't how you deal with fear!"
Rushing out a short ways- he runs in front of Lucia, he doesn't try to restrain her but he does stand in the way, holding out his palms as if telling her to wait. The sudden jerk causing Ruby to cling to his shoulders with her claws, "Lucia- Lucia! I know dealing with that sword is important. But Virginia up there is important too. When noone else on Filgaia believed in us, she did, she immediately offered to help us on our mission. We have to help her!" "Y-Yeah we can't just leave her like this!"
He just had to trust that the Shepherd would deal with the rest, would prioritize the malevolence, the sword- that white knight, over Lucia. And he had to hope that Lucia wouldn't prioritize this girl, an ally she barely knows over everything else.
That's quite a gamble but- he had no other choice.
But that pulse of wrongness in addition to close proximity to Lucia, it causes this spasm of pain in his face, before he drops to her knees. A three way assault to his budding spiritual senses is almost too much. And yet he knew now from Agatha that Lucia must endure this, must suffer through something like it every day. He had to try...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Oh, and here come the Vile Fiends. Ragnell hasn't had the pleasure of meeting Lucia yet, though she's met a few of her entourage--Hiro, Ruby, Lemina--but even though the Malevolence that clings to her like an oil spill to a coastal reef doesn't stand out among all the Malevolence of the town, there's something about her stateliness that tells Ragnell that Lucia must be it. Her eyes widen, then narrow, as Lucia bolts forward to attempt to grab the sword at the same time Rose does. It's probably a waste of time to try to get Ruby's eye at a time like this, but Ragnell starts forward anyway.
Then someone she doesn't know appears, and things get *really* weird. Hellions are just like that, to be fair, and it's clear that this girl is one, but it manifests in a way that Ragnell's never seen before--grass turning to checkerboard, Hellions manifesting as toys, and a girl who apparently felt afraid, like a burden, and so succumbed to the darkness within her.
She wonders if she succumbed on her own, or if this is someone else's doing.
And then a voice rings out, powerful and warped, behind a faceless horned mask. Ragnell's breath catches in her throat, and she turns to see the approach of K.K. just before power bursts out as Rose and Lucia both seek to claim the blade. A voice rings out, one with power and desire, and a Hellion emerges in a whirlwind from the blade. Beyond it, K.K. stands, tall and implacable. And with them is the human Hellion, the girl others are calling Ginny.
For a moment, Ragnell can do naught but stare.
And then she grins, savage and bloodthirsty.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia looks towards Gwen and has a cute little wink as she says, "Oh, Gwen! Heeey, how are you doing?" If she has any kind of semblance that something's wrong, she certainly sees so mired in the thick of it that she... just doesn't understand it one bit.
"'No', Lemina?" Virginia queries the young mage of the Magic Guild. "Why not? I've never felt more free. Unfettered. Wonderful..."
The enormous wave of Hellion Toys are beginning to spread out within the castle's checkered parameters, seeking out prey as the soldiers march in tandem. Their weapons look toyetic, but make no mistake -- there's a malevolent edge to each of them that mean that they're as dangerous as any real armament.
She rises to the top of the weathervane tower, seemingly having perfect balance. Her hair flutters gently in the winds. The ray of light that's carved hope into the darkness of Maya Schrodinger's life... now warped thusly, consumed with the conflagrant cruelty of life. Is this the end of their hope, their dreams? Are their wings clipped, no longer to fly the skies together?
"When I saw just how much pain you were in... I told myself that I couldn't simply sit by and let you sacrifice yourself to shield me forever," she murmurs, sounding almost... clear for a moment. Like the curtains of darkness have unfolded into a purity of feeling. An earnest desire. A kindling of heartfelt emotion, from one lone girl ensconced in the coldness of the wasteland to another.
Then, it redoubles itself, a bastion shielding itself around her heart. It's gone. Her eyes glare brighter, that Malevolent tinge simply racing into an ebbing thrum. "... Jean ... Hiro... you're so nice... you've taken care of me all this time... as has everyone..."
That grin turns wild, wicked, all of a sudden. "It'll all be okay. Everyone who gets in our way... I'll teach them a lesson."
She seems so wrapped up in her own world that she hasn't noticed that her Toys have lurched out towards the group, striking every which way! The Fiends receive the brunt of Ginny's shock troopers, each of them wielding bayonet-spears -- the front-line fire, and then the backline charge in with their spears to try to stab and poke!
Maya gets a bit more of a special treatment -- that gigantic, menacing teddy bear just lands wholesale and lets out a spinning whirlwind with its one ugly claw, intent on tearing at her.
Gwen... Gwen gets a reminder of how dashing a horse truly can be, when the rocking horse crying tears of blood just wholesale rolls over, attempting to barge over her!
Further stray shots from the soldiers up on the cake-like parapets pepper the area, going ever which way, targetting Jacqueline, Ragnell, and Ethius!
GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Nightmare Veil! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Hiro with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jean with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Lemina Ausa with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Lucia with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Nightmare Veil! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Black Curse! GS: Virginia Maxwell has completed her action. GS: Jean takes a solid hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 90 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Lucia takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 61 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Lucia! GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Veil for 117 hit points! GS: Disease! Statuses applied to Maya Schrodinger! GS: Ethius Hesiod critically Guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 16 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jacqueline Barber takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 51 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Jacqueline Barber! GS: CRITICAL! Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 105 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Lemina Ausa!
DC: MISS! Seraph Ragnell completely evades Black Curse from Virginia Maxwell!
GS: CRITICAL! Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Veil for 98 hit points! GS: Disease and Mute! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Hiro critically Guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Black Curse for 17 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
Lucia stands not at the eye of the malevolence maelstrom, but at its heart. There is no respite here, no high-pressure calm. Rather she screams as the dark -- and sentient! -- forces tear through the conduit of her soul with more than enough power to send her tumbling head over heels, hat over boots, into a blue-black-red sprawl.
She hadn't been paying too much attention to Virginia, but that changes rapidly because of her friends. They are horrified, and she is transfixed by their horror. Her vivid eyes pierce through the violet gloom -- and the curtain of her bangs -- to stare at the girl and her display of malicious might. And she just keeps staring, even when the Hellions come to pierce her.
A spearhead disappears into her cloak, eliciting a gasp of pain, but even this cannot distract her from what she feels, what she's too busy feeling to react to.
That dampening of magic -- that pollution that surges through her veins, through her heart, through her...
...friends.
Hiro, Jean, Lemina, all in so much pain, spiritual and otherwise.
"...no..."
The word passes through her cracked lips, dry and reedy as the girl herself. Fabric and hair ruffles as she struggles, and fails, to stand. Even lifting her eyelids feels like moving through quicksand.
She must perservere -- but she cannot. Like this Virginia has so often felt, right now she is -- not -- strong enough. She can't stand against this malevolence, any more than she can throw off that which binds her every day.
The only thing that can escape this burden is a tear, squeezed painfully out of the corner of one eye to make tracks down her cheek. And a whisper, desperate, frightened.
"...Hiro...Jean...Lemina..."
GS: Lucia has attacked Lucia with Cursed Calamity! GS: Lucia has completed her action. GS: Lucia takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cursed Calamity for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'What is she doing?' Ethius asks. He may not have expected an answer, but Gwen is answering. "She's been affected by Malevolence. Distortin' her logic and thinkin'. Probably been happenin' for a period of time. Whatever you do, don't assume she's as she appea-" The pulsing of the sword, Virginia's aura, and everything around her cuts the courier off, causing her to waver on her legs as she holds a hand to her pounding head. "Nnh!"
Virginia's words parallel Gwen's past ones. The tale of a girl, the archetypical sick girl, constantly bandaging healing skin. Always sick. Always panting, pleading for her friends to wait up for her. Always crying, because some bully or another thought she was an easy target. A few friends stood by her, but when she came back into that little town, years later... "For some people, that's the only way they know. Not everyone can cry or hug or laugh, so instead, they stand in front n' take the blow for you."
It was a hard lesson for Gwen to learn. One she's still having trouble with, having found herself in the position of being, well, 'super courier'. "So just hang tight, Ginny, we'll figure somethin' out! And then we'll help the others get this area purified!"
Wait- when did Hiro and the rest get here? No matter, this just makes this all easier!
"I'm certain there are things we can do," Gwen says to Jay, with a determined nod. "In the meeting Sorey and the gang had, Malevolence is negative emotions and stuff, right? So the best thing we can do is try to fight it back on its own turf. We'll hold each other up. And those bonds, just maybe... they'll hold Ginny up too. She's affected all of us in some way, right? In good ways. That part of her's still there!"
They just have to survive her minions. The rocking horse barrels towards Gwen in a way she's never quite had to deal with with Gulliver. "Wh-whoah!" Gwen holds up her ARM, which manages to absorb some of the impact, but not much as she's sent flying through the air, crashing against the ground. "D-damn... That's a tough rockin' horse!"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius loses sight of the purification process as performed by Sorey - ostensibly the primary 'appeal' to him having come along... but he can't ignore this sight. A young, well-dressed lady flitting about a scarred village that will forevermore bear a name in history as a tragic loss. The evil, soul-crushing force that once settled about the Batical Grotto has come here, and scant few would ever willingly venture into such a thing after a first exposure - if one were to survive said first exposure.
"Is that so... Miss Gwen." Ethius responds to the Super Courier's explanation in that same even tone of voice. "She can't stay here."
Ethius walking closer among those who have chosen to confront the delirious young woman, turning his back to the ominous voice that challenges those who heed ot to face their sins. He can hear the challenges, the taunting, the residual fear a ways away...
His eyes narrow, attempting to focus past the haze of constructs, colors, and things that he believes are not there, should not be there, and consequently, can not be there - but he cannot use ignorance as a shield. Not after a brush with a heavy concentration of it, or that shock that went through him when he came across that tiny crystal - to say nothing of what happened in that hallway...
...
The quarterstaff is tightly gripped in both hands, moved to a fighting-ready stance. Maybe it is easier for him compared to some of the others, for he does not know Virginia well. This gives him an easier time focusing.
Not an easy time, but... easier.
Shots ring around him from the toy-like soldiers up on the cake-like parapets. To visual cognition, they seem to stick onto his held weapon like brightly-colored barbs. His grip on the quarterstaff tightens as he fights back against unexplained perceptions of pain and imbalance, desires to simply run and hide into a happier place, into a world of fantasy.
He simply hasn't reached that full level of understanding yet. His relative ignorance of the deepest, darkest depths of Malevolence's touch saves him - anchoring himself to some unexplained desire that continues to drive him across his strange, erratic path through the Adlehyde region. Some goal, whatever it is, that keeps some of this at bay.
"Young lady," he speaks as he draws nearer and nearer yet, extending a hand from the quarterstaff as the one holding it rests the tip against the ground, "your friends and family appear worried for you. Close your eyes and rest."
This is punctuated with a soft-spoken quick chant that causes a spark to jump out of the extended hand of the stranger - ostensibly a small, trivial jolt that moves to stun, rather than injure.
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Exposition! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell's personal interests lie both with the Shepherd and the Lord of Calamity, for a variety of reasons--but she's spoken with Sorey, fought on the same battlefield as him; she's seen at least some of what he can do. Lucia is another matter, and so when she and the Vile Fiends focus in on Virginia (or more accurately, Virginia demands their focus), Ragnell stalks in with twin pistols in hand to follow suit. The toy soldiers up on the parapets fire down on her, and she dances in between the bullets, quick as lightning and twice as eager to strike, before returning fire with lightning bullets and a total lack of hesitation or compunction, largely because she doesn't know her in the slightest. What can they do? Commit a violence, apparently.
As she fights, she keeps the Vile Fiends in her peripheral vision. What she sees surprises her: Lucia, tall and imposing, is all but frozen against the assault of Virginia's toy soldiers, spearhead dampening her magic and leaving her nigh voiceless, frightening, all but paralyzed.
This isn't what Ragnell pictures when she sees the Lord of Calamity in her head. She frowns slightly.
She also doesn't weigh in on Gwen's theory that as long as they all hang together, maybe the power of their bonds will break through the Malevolence and bring the normal Ginny back. Well... anything's worth trying once, she supposes.
GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Exposition for 0 hit points! GS: Reload! Ethius Hesiod gains 15 extra FP from Gwen Whitlock! GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Twin Bullet! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Tiny Spark! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Addled by the Malevolence even before factoring in the shock of this twisted, corrupted version of her dear friend, and it's no wonder that Maya is in too much of a stupor to notice poor Jacqueline looking her way for some kind--any kind--of sign. Indeed, the only signs she gives off are ones of confusion and pain, aren't they? Magnified some thousandfold by the fel, twisting menace behind those fluttering motes that radiate from Virginia's distorted dream-kingdom, Maya Schrodinger re-learns a humble lesson this day:
This is the taste of fear.
"Seeing you like this--is worse than... than the sting of any setback, anything you might've done..." her words are clumsy, her tongue dry, as coils of black ivy seethe from the cracks in the paved ground and wreathe around the girl's ankles in a clumsy metaphor for the unleashed tumult in her heart shackling her. Less metaphorical is the way they also chain Maya in place as an animatronic, clawed horror descends from the blood-red sky with a lumbering *thud* and looms over her.
Fitting, somehow, that Virginia's twisted dreams wrest their way from her soul to clash with the Schrodinger girl's shell of fantasy in this place where reality no doubt is stretched terribly thin.
That lethal teddy's whirlwind strike catches the drifter square in the chest, and she makes a disturbing noise of breathless agony in the moment of impact. The black vines around her feet snap almost immediately from the force, and the blonde takes a spiralling trip upwards away from the top of that castle rampart and into the side of a tower of roses in an impressive cloud of pink petals. It's not a good look. Maya is half-embedded in a web of thorny vines and blossoming scarlet flowers, eyes squeezed shut in a painful-looking mask of turbulent emotions, with her adventurin' dress sporting some huge claw-shaped rips to boot.
But when next her eyes open, the sting of injury has clearly cut through the fog of her emotions.
"That's how it is, huh...? I'm gonna have to haul your ass outta the fire one last time...?"
GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Bounce back!! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action. GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Maya Schrodinger's Bounce back! for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Maya Schrodinger clears debuffs from Maya Schrodinger!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
There was no time.
Before Jacqueline can start to think of a plan, gunfire - or was it? - batters the area around her and Jacqueline is forced to duck aside. While she manages to avoid the brunt of volley, one of the soldiers manages a solid hit, toppling her over with a yelp of pain.
With a grimace, Jacqueline gets to her knees and rummages through her satchel of Crests before drawing one out and invoking it.
A small wall of stone is conjured in front of her in attempt to shield herself from further attacks while she draws forth a small bottle full of pale-blue liquid and drinks.
While it soothes her physical injury, it does nothing for the fog creeping in on her mind, sapping at her sorceries. An effect of the shot, perhaps, or merely panic setting in?
Jacqueline takes a deep breath in an attempt to focus herself.
Gwen's words get through, and Jacqueline nods.
"Right...we have to get through to her somehow...but her..."
Were those...really Hellions?
"Minions..." She decides. "Are going to be a problem. We should deal with those first."
That was her conclusion, but she wasn't going to hold anyone to it.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Conjure Convenient Waist-High Cover! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Jacqueline Barber heals Jacqueline Barber! She gains 100 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
The horrid burst of Malevolence seem to Jean to rip through her just standing there, though she doesn't move, though it doesn't move her except to close her hands into fists and press her lips together. Pain is pain, but it isn't the pain that bothers her of this. This must be...
What does that say of what it's likely to do to her, if it is Malevolence? If she can sense it, now? What does it say...?
That is one kind of pain. But there are others. There's also watching Virginia like this. Watching her set to do awful things. She has to...
"This isn't--" Jean starts to answer back, but the Hellions launch forward, spears hitting through Jean even as she tries to dance out of their way, at her arms and at her sides.
She can hear Gwen speaking of how to hold one another up, but at the same time she hears Lucia whispering, looks towards her friend in such pain and peril.
"Virginia!" Jean calls. "...I'm not done with you yet! You'll have to teach me that lesson!"
It's better if it's her. She looks to Maya, nods, and pulls her fans. "Hiro! Let's go!" The minions could be a problem; Jean starts her first twirl, smiling once to Lemina in encouragement with a happiness she doesn't feel, and starting to hack her way back into the shock troopers with razor fans, up and down.
GS: CRITICAL! Virginia Maxwell guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's Tiny Spark for 20 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Virginia Maxwell! GS: Virginia Maxwell critically Guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Twin Bullet for 18 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Jean has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Razor Dance! GS: Jean has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Virginia Maxwell guards a hit from Jean's Razor Dance for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.
At the heart of the storm of Malevolence, the Shepherd stands, channeling the purifying power of the goddess into the soil of a dying land. His allies - the Seraphim, the merchant, the unwanted princess - stand around Sorey, guarding his back, protecting him from the monster seeking to cut him down, from the witch the other Filgaians have now engaged. It is a battle, quite literally, of light against darkness. But it is not the fight that matters today.
"DESTROYER!"
The voice is a whip-crack of righteous indignation, emerging from a small man with a solid build, dressed in simple, frayed martial artist's clothing. His face is plain and unlovely, his hair shot through with grey, and his eyes deep, hard chips of stone. He's just some ordinary man - but the word he directs to Lucia and the venom he throws into it suggest something else entirely. He lifts a shaking hand upward in front of his face, as if trying to screen his vision from the force of pure fear and hatred made manifest, malice blowing against him like a wind.
Like a wind.
The martial artist's hand closes, leather gloves creaking. He lets loose a scream, and brilliant white-green power blazes out from his body in a swirling gale, pushing back against the Malevolence with the power of the storm. Those familiar with the Blessing of Althena will sense it pouring out from him in droves; those sensitive to emotion will sense not hatred (which would feed the very Malevolence it pushes against) but something else: pure, unbridled joy.
"I am the Storm Fist, Corwynt!" he roars, voice amplified with the howling wind of his power. He crouches for an instant and then leaps forward as if shot from the mouth of a canon, trailing white-green power from both fists. "TASTE THE SLEEP ETERNAL!"
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
"That's -- that's exactly it!" Lemina screams over the din of the marching malevolent toy soldiers. "You -- I --" she swallows hard, and the Malevolence of Lahan threatens to swallow her in turn. By the time she's figured out what to say, there's already a bayonet near her, and all she can do is drop her stance a little lower to make the stab something a little less fatal.
Doesn't stop her from shrieking. She shrinks back a little -- and then looks up to Virginia with genuine sadness in her eyes. "... You feel free because you can't see the world outside the trap anymore!" she shouts, moving backward, gripping her staff tight.
Her grip on her staff becomes white-knuckled, and she looks to Lucia. "... Lucia..." She sees Lucia -- always weighed down by Malevolence, with such conviction for Althena's sake, and yet so helpless before what stands in front of them...
... well, Lemina thinks. Lucia isn't the only inheritor of a proud Althenian legacy, here -- maybe someone else needs to act like it.
Even as the darkness around her threatens to swallow everything, Lemina squares her stance and slams her staff into the ground with as much force as she can into the formerly-grass checkerboard beneath her, at the intersection of four corners. "I," she says, with resolution in her voice, "am Lemina Ausa, descendant of Lemia Ausa, one of the Four Heroes of Althena!"
A great beacon of red-orange flame flares around her, in the loose shape of a blade pointed straight at the sky. "A force that would mess with an innocent girl's feeling she isn't good enough... that's the mega-lowest of the low! And following us to a world that's already got its own problems to worry about -- even worse! I won't allow you to have your way with this, or any other world!"
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Lemina Ausa with Power Flame! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Power Flame for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Lemina Ausa!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Well! This certainly went to hell in a handbasket mighty quick! How could this have gone so bad so quickly, one might ask? Well, it's obvious! What does a young girl dream of if not the eradication of all those who stand before her? This is the modern era, after all. Girls, be ambitious.
But before you do.
Maybe... Take heed.
Corwynt launches a cannonball blow. Surely, there could be nothing to intercept it now. Nothing to receive it, to intercept it. Under normal circumstances, nobody would. But these are not normal circumstances. Corwynt throws his punch not at the megalomaniacal adolescent responsible for all this chaos, but at...
A totally different, totally nice, and totally pretty adolescent.
What gives, dog!?
This shall not stand! No. He can hear it. With a rumble of distant thunder and a rustle of nearby leaves, he erupts from left of stage... Why?
Because.
"THE WIND IS BLOWING!" A voice screams over the din of battle. A blade, curved and broad whirls through the air like a boomerang and smashes into the ground right in the path of Corwynt's terrible blow. His fist strikes Doombringer. The land below cracks and splinters, but the sword does not give way.
Because.
There is someone behind it.
He grins a terrible, fangy grin out from one side of his mighty blade. A dark hero with fierce golden eyes and moss-green hair. "Haha! You thought you had a cheeky plan, didn't you? Well!" Zed shoves against the back end of his blade to dislodge his intercepted puncher. Only then does he draw it out of the earth, whirling it once overhead before settling into a stance one could call 'impractical' only at best. "Nyeheheheh. No! Nobody out-cheeks Zed! And nobody! Nobody comes out of the blue and punches that blue-haired maiden if I have anything to say about it! NOW!"
Zed grins. Even through the whirlwind of Malevolence screaming all around them, he grins. His heart throbs, hammering quicksilver blood against the inside walls of his ears. He hears his heartbeat. He knows the call to war. The call to battle. Yes! Now is the time! He surges forward, launching into a flurry of blows. "PUT UP THEM DUKES!"
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Hiro retches into a dry heave, as Ginny tells her how nice they are. That she'll teach everyone a lesson. He sounds so pathetic right now, so small, "T-This isn't like you..." But a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eyes gets his attention. "Ruby fly- gotta get moving!" Ruby takes off simultaneously as the youth rolls in the direction of something glistening in the cratered ground. As his weight moves over it, there's a metallic bang, but to his vision it looks like a yo-yo colored to be a peppermint. Coming up to his feet, he slams his foot down in the edge, popping up the candy coated, striped object out of the dirt, where he grabs it by the string in mid-air and holds it in front of himself.
In reality it's a circular disc of scrap, cords attached to it- an artifact of Lahan's fall, but whatever it is, he's using it right now to try to save his life.
The first volley of the toys jars his arm as they ping against it, as he whirls around to meet a bayonet charge and-
He's reading to charge forth alongside Jean and Lemina but- Lucia. There's a look in her direction, at her suffering, as she's bent down. "Lucia! Just hold on!"
DESTROYER!
The shout whips his gaze up that way, "Don't you dare even think of touching Lucia! What is wrong with you!? Can't you see what's really going on here?" He stumbles into a run, trying to interpose himself, but toy soldiers block his way. There are so many of them already between him and Lucia-
His sword is drawn from his sheath in one smooth motion as he slides it up out of the changed landscape, to try to slice through the brigade of toy soldiers.
"Someone! Anyone! Please help her!"
Fortunately, comes the Dark Horse. A hero without compare.
ZED!
Who engages the martial artist within this storm of malevolence. "Zed! You couldn't have better timing!"
He tries to get to Lucia, tries to help her to her feet by clasping his hand around hers, and trying to help her up and- "Lucia-"
He says gently, weak with relief, her name a song in this moment, a prayer. He cants his head in Jean and Lemina's direction. It's hard to smile right now, with his head swimming like this, as ill as he feels, but he manages anyhow- "Let's go- let's go together." They wanted to get to Virginia as soon as possible but, "There's no way any of us would leave you behind."
GS: Hiro has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Poe Sword! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Virginia Maxwell guards a hit from Hiro's Poe Sword for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia's gaze casts down upon Lucia as one of her soldiers strikes her, and there's a furrowed brow from the girl. She hadn't seen Lucia before, but she'd heard her description, so much, from the other Fiends. They were as close as anything, so why does she... why is she...
She contorts her brow, and something about the way Lucia weeps discontents her. "I don't want to see you cry. Why do you cry?"
A shadow rises before Lucia, but it doesn't seem to... do anything, just loom around her. It manifests into a little teddy bear, which seems to be content to bobble over and collapse onto her lap. The soldiers have gone a different direction.
Was this kindness? Does a creature like her, so entrapped in her Malevolence, know kindness?
It doesn't last long. Gwen's words make her frown, and yet she says, "No matter why they do it, it still worries others, don't you think? That's why I've decided to free them of their worries..."
Her attention is turned quickly towards Ethius' jolt, and she raises a nightmarish barrier of weaving patterns not dissimilar to the violet patterns of the butterfly to shield it; some still get through, and she frowns as she waves her hand in a moment of pain. "... don't interfere."
Ragnell's bullets cleave through two soldiers and shatter them apart, where they're revealed for the wooden mannequins they are.
"What... lesson?" Virginia inquires of Jean, looking rather confused. She holds at her head and says, "I don't need a lesson! I have everything I could ever want... and more... I don't need to be taught! I can fly on my own now!" Jean's fans shred through the troopers, and much like Ragnell's shots, cleave through them to evoke the truth behind their nature: nothing but the simple machinations of a child.
Lemina earns her frown as well, as Virginia answers in kind, "How can you speak so boldly of your lineage? Maya would know. I know too. It's a burden... no, I've not been wrapped in a cage -- I'm now finally free!"
Hiro's valiant attempt at using the peppermint yo-yo works quite well, crushing the soldiers and seeing them not so much defend but get flattened into... peppermint patties.
Corwynt's yelling and Zed's subsequent intervention... causes her to twitch. "What?! Get out! Go somewhere else, we're busy here!" A twisted toy-maid bows down next to them and offers to point the way out. Will they even care? "If you so try to harm Lucia, I will evoke my full wrath upon you!"
Then there was Maya.
Maya, Maya, Maya. Why did she have to be here?
At first, she was pleased to see her again, but that frown upon her face, the clumsiness of her words... she watches the teddy-bear strike at Maya, and it earns her ire. "Begone!!" She thrusts her hand, and the teddy bear not so much explodes as implodes into a shrivel of cotton and malevolence as Virginia punishes her own servant for its belligerence.
Virginia is starting to pant just a little, but the butterfly, that violet butterfly starts to make its way towards her again. She stares at it for a moment, then relaxes herself, steadying as she lets it perch upon her finger once more.
"Watch, Maya Schrodinger. If you so insist on being the wings to shelter me, then I'll just show you how far my own wings can spread!"
The minions begin to falter, and subside to where she's extended her hands to create more mandalas of violet power around her wrists. She raises one hand up... and lets it descend slowly, an artful dance upon which she evokes her dark, dreamlike art.
The castle's walls and turrets begin to darken, and soon they're nothing more than a silhouette against the backdrop of the barren sky around Lahan. Laughter emanates from the darkness. Visions start to engulf the group where they stand, within the darkness. It isn't minions anymore -- the Malevolence has, to those who can sense it, leapt over to twist into a power of Virginia's; it seems to pull from the back of their minds, finding whatever it can from the recesses of their subconscious.
Though brief, they each see visions that they'd rather not see -- visions of the past, visions of grief, visions of loss, however faint, but irrevocably seeded from their own doubts. A strong will is no doubt enough to guard through and see the illusion for what it is, but this is no power of Malevolence alone. There's something else within here that it's fuelling in the most wrong way.
The nascent power of dreams, twisted and warped.
"Welcome to my nightmare..."
GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Lucia with Shadow Servant! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Hiro with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jean with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Lemina Ausa with Nightmare Border! GS: Virginia Maxwell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hiro takes a solid hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 130 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Hiro! GS: CRITICAL! Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 160 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Maya Schrodinger! GS: Jacqueline Barber takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 61 hit points! GS: Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 72 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell heals Lucia! She gains 100 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Seraph Ragnell takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 73 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Seraph Ragnell! GS: Gwen Whitlock critically Guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 25 hit points! GS: Lemina Ausa critically Guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 25 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Jean takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Border for 77 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Jean!
<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.
Corwynt's fist smashes into Doombringer's guard, the martial artist's arm flexing, shoulder bunching as he arrests the momentum. A half-second later, the wind blast Corwynt kicked up to carry him forward catches up with the man, and both combatants are briefly surrounded by a rush of whipping wind.
"Tch," the Guardsman snarls as he disengages, flipping back away from Zed, arms rising up in a guard. "What I see is the true face of the Lord of Calamity!" Corwynt snaps at Hiro, but then the Guardsman's attention is fully devoted to the green-haired, fang-mouthed swordsman now advancing forward. Corwynt raises both arms in front of his face in a peek-a-boo guard, the metal gleaming for an instant from the sleeves of his gi before Zed is upon him.
And the Storm Fist begins to flow.
Zed's first strike is partially blocked, metallic vambraces shrieking as both arms clash against Zed's blade. THe second evaded by a quick back-step. The third thrust is side-stepped as Corwynt shuffles to his left, the fourth by a rapid duck, head bobbing down and back up again. If Jean can spare the attention from her current predicament, she may recognize the movements of a Meribian school of martial arts - The Wondrous Academy of the Smiling Breeze - that is typically practiced by the elderly and children, to build or maintain flexibility and balance. But in its current form, practiced by the man who calls himself the Storm Fist, it is something else entirely.
Corwynt slips away from the next several slashes by decreasing margins, the second-last actually slicing a line of red from Corwynt's left bicep. THe last strike, however, connects fully - but with a hazy green-white vision of the little man, the after-image already disappearing on the breeze as Corwynt steps in, hard, driving his right hand up toward Zed's abdomen. "GO!" he roars, and a blast of wind explodes outward from his fist as he strikes. "Go to the embrace of the Goddess you SPURN!"
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
To say that Lucia is overwhelmed right now would be the understatement of the century. Some coolly distant part of her is amazed, though, that it isn't the burning chains of Zophar's curse, enflamed by the circumstances of this place, that dominates her awareness.
No; it is Maya's pain, as she gazes upon Virginia -- and Lemina's, too. The way they transform that pain into strength. The way they demonstrate, with a clarion vividity as piercing as any bell, that this single girl is worth everything in the world.
Lucia's axiom is the direct opposite, but for the first time, that pillar in her heart shifts, just a little, beneath the seismic force of their regard -- and Virginia's own, too. She stares and stares at the Drifter, and silently reaches up to accept the teddy bear. It dissolves back into shadow almost immediately, merging with her own shroud, but not before bringing a smile to her face.
It is a tiny smile -- but a memorable one.
She doesn't see Corwynt, and his shout barely penetrates -- she looks up just in time to see Zed interpose. He gets a dazed nod, while the strength of Althena, flowing so freely from another person who seeks her death, a wince.
And then Hiro is there, with his strong hands, his strong words. He helps her to her feet. Lucia tosses her head, settling her knocked-askew cap back into proper position, and nods, firmly.
"I will help you help your friend," she asserts quietly, nearly inaudible beneath the myriad roars of battle. "I will help her help herself."
Hiro can feel her slender hand tighten around his. A moment later, it is finally her turn to release a measure of power.
Like her smile, it is tiny but memorable. Motes of purest white light flow from their clasped hands to soar towards those on the front lines, the beleagured Lemina, Jean, and perhaps most of all Maya. Each one feels like a cool hand on a fevered brow; like a single candle in a dark room. Like an unexpected windfall in the gutter.
They can feel Lucia's hope -- the sparks of belief in their ability to save Virginia, that might soon be fanned into flame.
GS: Lucia has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Cleansing Litany! GS: Lucia has attacked Jean with Cleansing Litany! GS: Lucia has attacked Lemina Ausa with Cleansing Litany! GS: Lucia has attacked Hiro with Cleansing Litany! GS: Lucia has completed her action. GS: Hiro takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cleansing Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lucia clears debuffs from Hiro! GS: Jean takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cleansing Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lucia clears debuffs from Jean! GS: Lemina Ausa takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cleansing Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lucia clears debuffs from Lemina Ausa! GS: Maya Schrodinger takes a solid hit from Lucia's Cleansing Litany for 0 hit points! GS: Restore! Lucia clears debuffs from Maya Schrodinger!
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Don't interfere.
Ethius is interfering. He does not know this young woman. She does not know him. Within the emotional constructs of so many friends finding their own friend suffering, he is an aberration. The butterflies flit in and out of shape, but he comprehends and cognizes their color. He can acknowledge there is a barrier, of sorts, in play.
He only vaguely recognizes Zed's presence and some other conflict over yonder. Even in this extraordinary situation, he quickly seems an afterthought.
It's distraction enough that he finds himself taking a step back as the scenery he attempts to deny the existence of adjusts itself.
A poignant pause sees Ethius bring a hand up against his face, the other holding the quarterstaff slack as the laughter echoes, and the darkness jabs into his mind.
...What is this? He thinks. This is not his first time witnessing it. This is much like the cave. The ground, nothing but ash with ivory lumps. Behind him, colors and sounds too far out of focus to comprehend, always behind his perception. Ahead... patterns. Glowing, innumerable patterns that seem to command attention by existing. Patterns of what? What do they represent? They are the exact color of not belonging to where they overlay.
Ethius shakes his head. He has no time for this, and yet, a weight feels like it presses on his chest.
"Is this... yours?" Ethius asks. No, she wasn't with him, but the confusion seeps into his voice as he asks. He blinks a few times. "No. This cannot be yours..."
He finds his voice again, remembering he's here for a reason. Does he remember the reason, or just that there is one? Raising his left hand, the tattoos on his body glow a little brighter as he finds a little more space, a bit more time, to chant something together.
"Heat Flash!" With a sweep of his hand, the air warps under a brief flash of heat - it is disorienting, moreso than being a deadly force of sorcery. An attempt to mentally push the Malevolence-mad Virginia off-balance, so that those far closer to her - those who have her ear - will have an easier time getting through.
GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Heat Flash! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Virginia Maxwell guards a hit from Ethius Hesiod's Heat Flash for 31 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Well, well, well... Ragnell already had an idea about this thanks to her interactions with Hiro, Ruby, and Lemina, but seeing them all in the context with Lucia herself really reframes the whole group dynamic. Maybe it's because there's so much Malevolence swirling around that that which clings to Lucia is just kind of there, but even that just frames it all in a new light--because this level is bad, but it's not even on the same level as a fell dragon, let alone one who would be the Lord of Calamity. Ragnell recounts what she's heard about Lucia the so-called Destroyer, and this doesn't necessarily absolve her of anything, and it's certainly possible that fear drove her towards Malevolence--this world takes all kinds--but...
Hmmm. Yes, she definitely wants to look into this further. As Jean shouts in defiance, as Lemina calls out her ancestry, as Hiro drives himself as best he can towards Lucia's side, as Lucia accepts them all and grants back a shower of healing light... the dynamic they have is almost like--
Ragnell has to chuckle to even think it.
Well, it's almost like a Shepherd and her Seraphim.
Corwynt arrives, screaming the name of the Destroyer as he launches in to attack, and Zed appears just as suddenly to engage him and keep him off Lucia's back. Ragnell grins wolfishly--now *this* is a fight!--and Virginia's outrage at their appearance and attempted derailing of the battle only make her laugh. What's a battle without total chaos, after all?
As a Seraph, there might be something a little wrong with Ragnell.
Either way, she neither hinders Lucia's group nor directly helps them, nor does she interfere with the duel taking place just off to the side there. She just keeps an eye on everything going on, including the clattering of those toy soldiers into useless wooden puppets after she guns them down--and including Virginia as she sneers at Maya and performs an arte that turn all into darkness and warped laughter. The Lightning Seraph glances around, on her guard, but it's more difficult to dodge visions than it is gunfire. It's a vision of... a girl.
The breath dies in Ragnell's throat. Her red eyes widen. The girl fights against unseen, overwhelming odds, before finally she is overcome... Ragnell knows what happens next. Her hands clench around her pistols, and her teeth grind.
And then her lips peel back in a feral, merciless grin.
She lifts an arm and fires a volley of electric bullets into the air. When they come back down, it's as a torrential rain of needle-like static bolts, striking at the illusion that surrounds her andor the Hellion Virginia and the butterfly winging around her, whichever one(s) is actually there, and potentially clearing it andor the path away. Regardless, she strolls forward at a slow, leisurely pace, going through the wholly unnecessary motions of reloading her pistols. Ragnell's philosophy is ride or die, from aesthetics to convictions.
"Nice try," she growls, eyes blazing under her two-toned bangs. "But I made my decision a long time ago."
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Charge Rain! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell guards a hit from Seraph Ragnell's Charge Rain for 39 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean shakes her head as she shifts through the vanguard, calling up to Virginia, "The one for those who will interfere! The..." She trails off, seeing Virginia's confusion as much as hearing it while she turns from her last strike for the moment. "...The lesson doesn't matter!" she says instead, her voice softer, the awful churning in her stomach still threatening to show, her limbs feeling not heavy but charged.
"But does this really show what you want? Do you want to hurt people like this?"
The butterfly... Jean stops, to look back and check on Lucia again, to listen to her friends, and to finally look in shock at Lemina's declaration. She can't stop and leave them behind. "...Looks like we have help."
But the butterfly i on Virginia's finger, and she's talking to Maya. She's doing... something, with her power, with something dreamlike, and the darkness takes over. She isn't enough of a magical expert to fully understand what's happening, but she doesn't have to. She sees a vision of her own, stares down at her hands and up at nothing. No one else hears what it says to her, but she's heard it in her dreams for years. "What...?--No. No, that's not--"
"Stop--!" A pained cry precedes her as she stumbles backwards, until at her back there is a pure light, of waking up among friends. She remembers that the vision isn't her reality, can hope for something better.
"No. Virginia! ...I won't let you go down this path! What you just showed me... It only makes me more certain."
But it still lingers in her mind, has already haunted her dreams for a long time.
She charges forward, to the front lines again. Staright towards that butterfly she charges, and verything that gets in her way is treated with light steps, bends of the knees, fan attacks.
GS: Jean has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Feather Step! GS: Jean has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Jean's Feather Step for 67 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Virginia Maxwell!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Don't you know, Hiro?" Zed answers with a fierce grin and a confident sideglance. "The ninja always appears right on time... When it is time to turn the tide of battle, he shall come! Go! Worry not, for this one..." His eyes slide back to his new BEST BATTLEPAL. "This one is mine!"
One strike sheds sparks. Two, three, four, five, sixseveneightnineteneleven-- blood. "You know," he says to the maid, "It is very rude to interrupt a man's duel. Why don't you just sit back and watch, eh? EH!? We'll put on a show! Nyahahahaha!" Zed's smile widens by the slightest of margins at the gush of crimson spray. Twelve connects.
...Not.
"After-images!?" Zed gasps as the illusion fades into a hazy memory of past movements. "Not just that. Enough to trick my senses. After-images... with ma-- buwoh!?!?" Corwin's strike connects perfectly. A fist sinks into Zed's torso and drives upwards. Wind carries him into the heavens, a vortex of pure power sending him pinwheeling skyward.
His scarf billows in the gale.
He opens red, watering eyes, one hand clutching at the point of impact, already beginning to bruise-- and then clenches into a fist. "I see... I understand. That technique, I will recognize it!"
"And--"
Zed turns, pivoting on a fulcrum of empty air. He grabs for his scarf, tearing it from around his neck and whirling one contrail downwards. No. Not whirling. Twisting. Intertwining. Walking the path of the dragon and the tiger, dancing the current of phoenix and tortoise-snake. The walk of life. The Spiral Path!
"Let me show you something cool, too! WITNESS!" Zed roars as his scarf, impossibly, seems to harden, tighten, fusing at the fringes into a great, golden drill...! But could that simply be an illusion? Is it just a trick of the mind!? Zed turns one more time, scarf held by one end over his head. The arm turns, the arm whirls. His heel tucks into the center of the spiral, and kicks downward. "Spurning divinity! Casting down all gods, all devils, and all the stars in heaven! IT IS I, ZED!! AND MY!!!"
"MAGICAL!"
Zed descends, impossibly aimed in a falling, flying kick... Right for Corwyn.
"WILLFUL!"
Yes.
"SUPER-POWERFUL!"
This could only be...!
"GUTSYYYYYYYYY! ZEEEEEED!!!!"
--==ORIENTAL MYSTERY - SOUL-SPIRAL UNITY==--
"KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!"
...
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE JUST MADE THAT UP.
SHUT YOUR MOUTH!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
...Zed was here? Jacqueline glances towards Ethius with a frown. Was he paying attention to this? Apparently, he had some interest in protecting that blue-haired woman. But why?
She couldn't concern herself with that too much right now. She had to focus on the task at hand.
She reaches into her bag to pull out another Crest, but pauses. The world around her seemed to be fading into darkness.
Jacqueline falls back from her make-shift barrier, eyes wide and breath heavy as her mind is assaulted by visions from the past. Memories she'd rather have left behind. Lingering doubts she couldn't quite shake.
But...
"I don't...have time to be selfish right now..." Jacqueline mutters, shaking her head.
With some effort she forces herself back to her feet, using her barrier to support herself.
"Nothing wrong with independence...but if you throw away those you care about in the process, what's the point? You're just hurting everyone! If this is what flying on your own is like, then I don't want it!" She says, drawing forth another Crest from her pouch.
Seeing Ragnell's lightning volley, Jacqueline decides to throw in her own two gella.
She invokes the Crest, punctuating the Seraph's attack with a single large bolt of lightning.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Lightning Strike! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Lightning Strike for 132 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"You're wrong! You have no idea how wrong you are." Hiro snaps at Corwynt unhappily, given that the guard are taking advantage. But Zed, "I-"
There's a pregnant pause and, "-have no idea what a ninja is! But you're the best one I know Zed."
Helping Lucia to her feet, the smile upon his expression blooms, more cheerful now that Lucia was offering her aid. "Thank you." His gratitude is palpable. "Thank you so m-AGH-" Which is when the nightmarish malevolence twists it's way into the corners of his mind, grips his doubts and his insecurities.
To be the Lord of Calamity is not to be a ravening destroyer or lord of darkness.
The words echo into his mind, as he looks at Lucia in disbelief- like her presence was searing the landscape away in blue flames. The smile is gone, it's simply the cold- and clinical look of a destroyer
Instead, it is a title that has been given to those who are considered to have the power to upend the order of the world.
He tries to shake it off, like a nightmare on the edge of his consciousness, hoping it'll fade like a bad dream upon waking, but it doesn't.
Until Lucia's wave of power washes over him- let's him remember her smile, her determination.
Her hope.
Ruby meanwhile flies over, behind Ragnell, due to her intensity right now, "Ragnell! Ragnell! Is there anything we can do for her? There has to be a way without Sorey right?" Then Ruby blinks her large feline eyes, "Gwen- you're here too!? But- you..." It had been so rough on her, Ruby knew, and yet she was here. "... I'm so glad. This is turning into a real garbage fire and we need all the competent hands we can get!" But she's worried. She's obviously worried, it had been hard on her too.
"Zed! We're counting on-" His mouth is open wide as he sees his attack, "I- I... don't think we have anything to worry about and we can just leave that guy to him."
Staying close to Lucia in his advance he steels a look towards Maya, before shouting towards Virginia, "It's not that Maya wants to shelter you or anything! She just doesn't want you to take on too much before you're ready! You have to understand how much she really cares about you, how much all of us do!"
He sees Jean charging at the butterfly, and taking one last look over his shoulder, he grasps his boomerang out of its holster, bringing it up into his hand, and in his sprint, he flings his wrist. Whispering a word, mid-air a cross-breeze strikes it, causing it to break apart into two seperate boomerangs- which spin in opposite directions, before converging on a single point, at the same time as Jean's step and fan attack. "Lemina! Can you clear us a way to her?"
GS: Hiro has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Cross Boomerang! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Hiro's Cross Boomerang for 132 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
It's about now that Lemina begins to notice that this isn't... purely Malevolence, or at least, isn't a manifestation she's read about... and the books of the Magic Guild of Vane are expansive. Everything is twisted... this isn't some garden-variety Hellion. Whatever it is that's happened to Virginia -- it's something that, as far as Lemina can guess, neither Lunar nor the Blue Star has ever seen before.
Power still flares around her, her blonde hair whipping around wildly, every part of her moving with clarity and purpose. Her staff twirls, an as the castle darkens and the sky opens, Lemina feels... something vile in her gut.
She sees, for a split second, Vane in ruins. Her mother in Borgan's arms. Neo-Vane touching down -- solely to quite literally crush what once was Vane beneath it, before flying away.
Her heart sinks -- but doesn't falter. Lemina has to grind her teeth and focus for a moment to manage it -- but her heart is set, and the trick is recognized for itself. "The legacy of the Ausa family isn't a burden!" she shouts. "Yeah, my mother's mega-bad with money! Yeah, Vane is a mega-icky dump right now! And -- yeah, I'm going to have to work hard to put it back together! But... but so what!? A heavy legacy's just a way to build a mega-strong heart to carry it!"
Lucia's will flows into her, and the crushing weight of the Malevolence around them feels lighter. She looks to Maya, moving closer to her, giving her staff a twirl as she moves.
"I've got your back one hundred percent," she says, "... but I think the heavy lifting on this one is gonna be on you."
Looking back to Hiro, she affirms, "Got it! Clearing a path's what I do best!" With a second twirl of her staff, she cries out, "Let's punch clean through! Ice Lance!" A massive spear of ice streaks straight through the battlefield at Lemina's command. Like her friends, she aims for the butterfly -- but the route is chosen to create a better path forward in the longer term, too.
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Ice Lance! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Ice Lance for 102 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.
Corwynt's expression hardens into a rictus grin as he connects; this shifts into a snarl as Zed not only doesn't die but continues mouthing off nearly as much nonsense as he's been doing thus far. The people of the Blue Star are entirely too powerful for a people fallen so far from Althena's grace. "Stop playing the fool, ninja!" the martial artist shouts; he's not sure what a ninja is supposed to be, but Zed appears to be sure he is one. "These Fiends are enslaved by the Lord of Calamity! If you are truly this man's friend, let me pass! I will slay her, and they will be free!"
Zed, apparently, has other plans. The green-haired swordsman leaps upward and then drives down again, whirling in a diving spiral. Corwynt's fists flash upward, sending hardened blasts of air ripping at the spinning Metal Demon, whose aura sends them scattering away. The martial artist then leaps to his left, evading the ridiculous kick...but not the blast of shattered earth it creates. Chunks of stone and broken earth are blown up by the force of Zed's strike, and a head-sized rock crashes into the Guardsman's left thigh, spinning him around; several other, smaller pieces collide with him as he lands, rolls, and eventually stops. But not for long.
"Spurning divinity," Corwynt says, spitting a red-tinged wad of soil from his mouth as he pushes himself to his feet. "So be it, then, Zed the Ninja - if you cast your lot in with these fiends, with the Lord of Calamity...then by the grace of the Goddess, I shall cast you down with them." The little man closes his eyes, focuses, and inhales. Deeply. Very deeply. The wind in the area begins to flow toward Corwynt, green-white lines of energy trailing along with it, being pulled into the Storm Fist as he just keeps on inhaling. Air begins to rush in to replace that stolen by the little martial artist, whose body starts to shimmer with building energy as he steals the breath of the world itself. After a good twenty seconds, he stops, his body gleaming, and then opens his eyes.
And then, he is just gone.
And then he is inside Zed's guard, right fist smashing into the swordsman's temple, blasting him away with Althena's might.
****************************************
* ZEDDOWS *
****************************************
A fatal exception OW has occurred at H0T:B7OOD
The current application will be terminated.
* Press any key to terminate the current application.
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart your Metal Demon.
You will lose any unsaved information.
Press any key to continue _
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
"You're so intent on spreading those wings of yours..." Maya slowly retorts through clenched teeth as she begins to struggle free of the thorny web of the spire that ensnares her, her eyes gaining focus on the palette-swapped vision of her dear friend Virginia as she dances with the butterflies. "So scared of being judged, and failing..." her hands tighten into fists, and break loose. The barbs bite deep, taking coat and holster from their owner. "You never once noticed how much it meant to me to shelter you with my own, Virginia...!"
To be fair to Virginia, though, her good buddy here was doing some quality denying the whole time, too.
When Maya falls from the tower, it's with arms spread wide and no plan but to hit the ground and make her way to pale mistress of the castle and slap some sense into her before things can get any worse. What happens inside her mind is that she actually falls face-first into a bottomless pit of
[[dark]
where all motion seems to cease, and all the world outside her little bubble is but a sea of--
doubt
-=-
the mousey-looking girl in the spectacles hugs her knees closer to her chest,
the tome beside her all the company she has. she's tired of the word
'experiment'. why can't they come back to her why can't they come back and
tell her they love her just once the cot hurts to lie on and the drugs are
starting to take effect , so she'll forget again...
-=-
--a comforting softness, a cool breeze on a warm spring day, tickles Maya's senses. A beautiful light that wipes away the oil-slick nightmare of things she, herself, doesn't even remember the damndest hint of is dancing before her vision as she falls. Like the hands of a mother on her child's cheeks, proud of everything, even (and especially) their failures, it is like nothing she has ever seen or felt before. So how is it that she knows these things? Why is it that the Drifter slowly turns to look at the lonely figure of Lucia, upon whom she has barely laid eyes before despite her close ties to all of the strange woman's friends? How does she -know-?
"Thank... you." the words are whispered, but as we mentioned before, matters of the heart carry stronger than the winds might normally allow. There can be no doubt: Maya can feel that belief, and she is no stranger to the powers of such.
At the very last second, the blonde Schrodinger girl tumbles midair to land on her feet but a few inches away from Hiro and Lucia, the rose tower crumbling behind her. She looks like hell, but there's a warmth and a purpose to her eyes and a strange smile in the midst of this heart of darkness that suggests either madness, or peace. "Thank you, for believing in Virginia with me."
What are the mechanics of dreams against fantasy? Where does the power of one end, and the other begin?
I don't know, but Maya turns and offers her hand back to Virginia despite all that's happened thus far. "Can't you hear what they're saying? They're right, you know."
GS: Maya Schrodinger has activated a Force Action! GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Mirage Warmth! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Maya Schrodinger's Mirage Warmth for 117 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
'DESTROYER!' Gwen, having just gotten up, whirls around at the unfamiliar voice and Hiro's subsequent yelling. 'Someone! Anyone! Please help her!' Gwen's already trying to run there, but she's even further away than Hiro is. There's no way she could get to them.
They need a hero. A dark hero, just maybe.
And Zed is clearly the man for the job. "Wooow, Zed, I could just about hug you right now!" Gwen yells in encouragement, then blanches. How is that encouragement?! "But you're kinda busy so..." Gwen's rather out-of-place attempt at a bit of humor(?) trails off as she looks towards the blue-haired young woman in question.
So that's the girl. The one dressed in black and red, with the blue hair. That's Lucia? Gwen gawks openly. "She..." She's utterly unlike what Gwen imagined, yet also like it. She's definitely a pretty young woman, the sort that would win the heart of a person by looks alone, and yet. There's power there, The words that come out of her mouth aren't the ones, unfortunately, she really intended for people to hear. "She's got amazing hair..." Gwen briefly feels a pang of vain envy, but it dissipates quickly, seeing the relief on people's faces.
They'll be okay. Everyone will be okay. It'd be so much easier if Gwen didn't have to worry, but all the same, it bolsters her, "Ginny..." She can't feel this, can she? All Virginia can feel is...
This nightmare. A home, and how it can become a trap. Shattering glass. Excessive heat. The weight of a wooden beam, pinning her down, leaving her open to the flames that lick ever closer. All she could do is hold up her right arm as a shield. But it's too small to cover everything. Just her face, mostly. Her lungs hurt. Her body hurts. Her throat hurts. Her heart-
Gwen clutches her chest and sags there, her open mouth gulps in air. They'll all weigh her down. These concerns, these problems, these unsolvable conflicts, the way they burn her heart.
But at the same time, she can see all their faces in her mind. Just what were her words before, if she didn't hold stock in them herself? To say one thing and not stand behind it? Her auntie'd have cross words for her, that's for certain. "Y-yeah, bonds aren't the greatest things. My life was a heckuva lot more peaceful before I threw my lot in with everyone." She roughly attempts to straighten herself, stlll panting. "Didn't have to worry about my ARM gettin' discovered, no fear of someone gettin' close enough to hurt, just me and Gulliver, travelin' everywhere. Free." The top buttons of Gwen's blouse lay open from her impact with the rocking horse earlier, displaying something a bit more than just a glance at Gwen's usually covered neck and upper chest area: the pink, rough patches of old burn scars. In a busy battlefield, it's something that can be placed aside which compared to far more pressing details of note. "You said you wanna free us of our worries?"
Her left hand clasps the small metal wind-up toy. Tiny enough to load inside Gwen's ARM. She points her palm towards Virginia. The electric current carries the toy along like any cartridge, all the same, shooting it straight at Virgina.
"Find your way back to us before you lose what's really important to you!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Virginia Maxwell with The Bonds We All Share! GS: Gwen Whitlock has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's The Bonds We All Share for 86 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Ethius' flash of heat washes over her form for a moment, ebbing with the shining brilliance of a heat haze -- but Virginia steps through with nary a thought but a discarded, burnt barrier, which shimmers away into errant motes of Malevolence. "You are not a sentimental man... but you are not empty. If you so choose to interfere, I will drag all that is painful out from within you!"
The presence of Ragnell's bolts soon catch her attention, however, and she finally discards her position as she whirls and barely scrapes the side of the charged bolts, several more barriers shed away around her as she cascades over towards one of her parapets. "... even when you've committed to your cause ... can you truly say you'll never waver, Seraph?" Her head lulls in one direction, just in time to see Jean charge for her butterfly.
The fan swings, the boomerangs converge, but the butterfly just seems to ebb and flow, as if it wasn't really there -- an ethereal image of a butterfly, with the very, very faint echo of a mocking laughter in the far periphery of consciousness. Is it... Virginia's voice, or something else?
Jean and Hiro's attacks doesn't seem to have been useless, however -- Virginia grimaces at the same time, even at a distance, as if she'd just been struck, her barriers falling apart. Is the butterfly... inflicting damage upon her? Substituting her? The relationship is there, but it isn't clear...
"Why can't you see it the way I can, Jean? The violet truth is in front of my eyes... ...am I no closer to making you understand?"
Further comment would have to be halted, for Jacqueline's bolts accompany those that she thought she'd dodged. It causes her to spring back as she erects an emergency barrier that falls apart, and it clearly drains her. "Why do you say that?! Why, why, why can't anyone understand? Why is everyone doing this?"
She throws her hand to the side in a gesture of frustration once more, staring at Hiro. "I'm sure that's what she tells herself, every time she steps away on her own and narrowly evades going home in a bodybag! I'm sick of that, do you hear? I won't let anyone hurt Maya anymore..."
More and more magic impugn on Virginia, and whatever power the young woman holds, she quite clearly doesn't have the sense and experience to know how to dance about a battlefield gracefully. Lemina's ice lance causes Virginia to throw herself forward as she just strikes it with a nigh invisible barrier, harming herself in the process as shards of ice rain upon her.
Corwynt and Zed's battle doesn't go unfettered, not in the slightest. There just appears to be a bigger and bigger grimace as a gathering of minions start to encircle the two, at first appearing menacing and then... uh, cheering, in some way, like they're acting as a battle crowd. "W-why are you guys--" Virginia looks flabbergasted. "Y--you foolish, boorish, fooly fools! I'll deal with you two fools in a second!"
She's certainly distracted as Maya makes her fall from her tower, her eyes widening. For a moment longer, that power ebbs and flows, and she shouts, "Maya--!"
She leaps straight off the tower, for a moment looking like she'd match her fall--
dreams
where all motion seems to cease, and all the world outside her little bubble is but a sea of--
hopes
-=-
the young girl in pigtails whimpers as she holds onto her uncle's hand,
whimpering unknowingly as she watches a man in a duster coat leave.
'why? why does daddy need to leave? i don't understand!'
'come back! come back to me!'
'don't leave me all alone......'
she'll close her eyes, shake her head, whisper words of faith
so in the end she'll never forget...!
-=-
Where Maya lands into a tumble-roll, bolstered by Lucia's support, Virginia's landed on the other side on her feet, supported by a nigh-invisible cushion of power... and in time to come face-first to Gwen's power-thrown electric toy. She raises her arms in defense, and gets thrown across and skids along the checkered, marbled flooring of her own castle. "I can't understand... I can't understand any of this!"
She stares at Gwen, then towards Maya. "I did all this to be by your side, ever closer! Why do you stand apart from me, Maya?!"
She raises both of her arms, rather eminently offended as the Malevolence in her eyes begins to tinge with a greater ebb. The price that it extracts upon her grows ever stronger, but in turn, the manipulation of the power she understands so little becomes ever more powerful in turn.
This was not how this power was meant to be used. Shunned from its potential, cast so far away...
"Drown! If you will still so shun me, then you can all drown in my nightmare!!"
The malevolent force that attacked upon the group before is back, sweltering in a gigantic wave of highly oppressive energies. The visions come closer as they seek a more harmful memory, longer and more persistent at this point in time. They screech and wail, like errant spirits seeking to claw and sink their fangs into anything unguarded, exposed, vulnerable.
But they've seen it once before, and the same strong will could surely stave it off, no matter how painful it can be.
Because that is the proof of their shared bond, as Drifters who stand the wasteland.
GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Maya Schrodinger with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Seraph Ragnell with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Ethius Hesiod with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jacqueline Barber with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Hiro with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Jean with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Lemina Ausa with Nightmare Frontier! GS: Virginia Maxwell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hiro guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 93 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Hiro! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Hiro! Virginia Maxwell gains 92 temporary hit points! GS: Maya Schrodinger has activated a Force Action! GS: CRITICAL! Maya Schrodinger takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 90 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Maya Schrodinger! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Maya Schrodinger! Virginia Maxwell gains 136 temporary hit points!
DC: MISS! Seraph Ragnell completely evades Nightmare Frontier from Virginia Maxwell!
GS: Jacqueline Barber guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 85 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Jacqueline Barber! Virginia Maxwell gains 175 temporary hit points! GS: Jean takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 73 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Jean! Virginia Maxwell gains 205 temporary hit points! GS: Lemina Ausa critically Guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 29 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Lemina Ausa! Virginia Maxwell gains 197 temporary hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Ethius Hesiod guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 88 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Ethius Hesiod! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Ethius Hesiod! Virginia Maxwell gains 271 temporary hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Virginia Maxwell's Nightmare Frontier for 90 hit points! GS: Virginia Maxwell drains Gwen Whitlock! Virginia Maxwell gains 317 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Hah! You're arguing the greater good when there's a GIANT CASTLE MONSTER right there!?" Zed laughs as he goes spiralling into the earth. Little chunks of planet blast upward and outward as his drill does its work and Zed fulflls in some small capacity the calamitous promise of his nature. "What good is a goddess who tells you to punch one thing and ignore another? Either punch everything evil or punch no evil at all! Ahahahahaha-hruf"
Freeze frame.
Corwynt's fist crashing into the side of Zed's face.
Next frame, an x-ray image of the inside of Zed's head. The side of his skull cracks a little bit. His brain sloshes one way. Next frame, it sloshes the other.
Next frame, Zed...
Goes flying.
His eyes have taken on a strange, blue, staticky glow.
Zed is barely conscious as he's sent on a one-way trip across the battlefield. His head lolls back, mouth ever so slightly agape at the enormous bulwark rapidly approaching his face.
Zed goes head-first into Virginia's wall.
Normally, being brained into a castle wall would make for a very rapidly dead man. Normally. Most castle walls are made of stone.
This one is made of delicious, moist, red, devilish cake.
Zed disappears for a moment into the tasty barrier.
...Then, one might hear...
The sounds of... Eating.
...
......
Zed's eyes flash over a mouthful of cake.
ZEDMIUM GAUGE: [------------]
ZEDMIUM GAUGE: [------------------------]
ZEDMIUM GAUGE: [------------------------------------]
Zed.
Erupts from the wall.
His mouth is still full of cake.
His eyes, still full of courage.
His soul, bouyed by DELICIOUSNESS and a couple pounds of devoured Ginny dreams.
His body is... Vibrating.
...
I-is this why he's not allowed to have sugar!?
"THFF WFF A GFF PNHHFF." Munch. Munch munch munch. Gulp. "THAT WAS A GOOD PUNCH!" Zed yells as he lands. It doesn't last long. Gravity has no meaning, Zed kicks off the ground and disappears. "But. I am not a puncher." In a split second, he's closed the distance, crouched just under Corwyn's guard. "I am a swordsman...!" Doombringer gleams with malevolent energies of a different kind. "AND THIS IS MY SECRET SWORD!" Zed leaps upward, lunges forward, he strikes at the speed of a hurricane with all the might of a thunderclap...!
--==SECRET SWORD - LIGHTNING FLASH==--
Leaving a contrail of lightning in his wake.
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
"YOU ATE MY CAKE."
Virginia's wrath suddenly cuts through like all sense of timing was crumpled apart.
"And for that... Zed, was it? Zed, mysterious ninja, and Corwynt, Storm Fist of Althena's Chosen, for being his opponent and indulging him so, and for threatening to harm Lucia..."
A curtain descends upon Zed and Corwynt at the apex of their blows, lightning clashing against each other. The silent whirr of what might sound like some kind of ancient movie projector with a super-eight reel can be heard, and when the velvet curtains open, the two are upon an overtly elaborate proscenium stage with cutesy, but obviously fake backdrops: trees that are more like planked up boards with color haphazardly painted on them, papier-mache props of giant apples and bushes, and a chair and table. And a box.
-~*~-
Malevolence Theatre presents!!
A SILENT PLAY in THREE Acts
Starring:
- HANDSOME NINJA Zed!
- STORM FIST Corwynt!
The Toyetic Abominations of Virginia Maxwell, Hellion
-~*~-
But wait, where's the abominations?
Oh. There they are.
There's a crowded silhouette of Virginia's toys from off-stage, like they're going to make fun of their duel through glib remarks or something, like they really should just relax and tell themselves it's just a show. But it's not just a show. This is serious business.
Virginia shakes her head as she flicks a lock of her hair back and... against all odds, sits down on a suddenly appearing round table with a comfortable cushion like she just has to go and watch this unfold. She even picks up a cup of tea and sips from it.
"Won't you two..."
The abominations rise to surround them, as if an angry audience about to pounce on a play that they disapprove.
She raises her cup, as if to toast them.
"Die For Me...?"
GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Zed with Die For Me!! GS: Virginia Maxwell has attacked Corwynt with Die For Me!! GS: CRITICAL! Corwynt takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Die For Me! for 400 hit points! GS: Mute! Statuses applied to Corwynt! GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Virginia Maxwell's Die For Me! for 350 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
The tides of malevolence crash and roar, but Lucia stands amid them unscathed. Some might mistake this for luck, but the woman herself suspects otherwise.
Once again her eyes penetrate the gloom of nightmare, beacons of brilliant green -- the green of this world, dwindling and rare. It lives in her, and so does something else.
Something she shares with Virginia.
"We haven't met," the Destroyer Lord of Calamity etc etc says to the other girl, as she walks through the path Hiro called for, the path Lemina and the others cleared, the path Virginia herself claims to clear to protect Lucia, too. "And... I am not very good at this."
At feeling. At talking about feelings. For all her imposing height and garb, right now the one who would find Althena seems rather shy. Vulnerability chews at the corners of her mouth.
She looks between Hiro and Jean and Lemina, hunting for their support, and finds it. Her jaw squares. Her chin lifts.
"At the beginning of my journey... everything was taken from me. Before I could do a single thing to advance my mission -- I was stripped of all my power. I was helpless. And I would have died a hundred times already if it wasn't for the others."
Her gaze flickers over the titantic battle between Zed and Corwynt, which is relevant to this point, but it returns to Virginia's eyes like a lodestone.
"Having to rely on the kindness of the others was unimaginable to me. I still do not really understand why they help me at all, when I bring such misfortune onto them. But I have learned one thing."
Lucia steps closer still -- not closer than Maya, but out in front of the rest, a defenseless defender.
"Relying on the strength of others... requires strength, too. To accept a gift is to bestow one upon the giver. I do not know how this is possible, this paradox, but... it is so."
Clinical, academic, rambling -- heartfelt. Lucia nods, firmly.
"It is not shameful to share your burden with others. These... our friends... they want to share it. And," her hand clasps over her chest, and the pendant that shines there, "I do, too."
GS: Lucia has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Power Charge! GS: Lucia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius is not a sentimental man, to one who can see into such depths - or far enough into the surface. Indeed, he seems to hold very little real passion. The invitation he made at the beginning seemed laced with only the meaning of the words - almost nothing in the way of what emotion powers the rest of her friends, as he wordlessly takes her threat without much visual reaction.
Jacqueline's idle musings might be on to something. Is Ethius seeing any of the other extraordinary things happening here?
Behind Ethius, the Lord of Calamity. Not too far off from the Lord of Calamity, two men battling with all their ridiculous heart. To the side of the stranger, at least two of the Vile Fiends - he does have to step away from Jean's approach. He moves further aside for a dual set of flying boomerangs, large sharp pieces of ice, and a few electrical offenses capped off by a flying toy.
Way off over yonder, the Shepherd - the original reason he may have spoken to others about wanting to follow.
Why would a girl that, as far as anyone knows, he has no personal stake saving be of more immediate interest? Even with the sensory overload of voices, lights, wills, and Malevolence... this is a strange choice for someone like him to focus on above all.
There was a firmness to his voice at the beginning, through the crushing negativity, that said she couldn't stay here - words he said with the same almost monotone tone, unshaken and unhesitant at the time. He still found it in him to try and approach her, surrounded by the vile butterflies.
...All this may be worth further consideration down the line, should they survive.
As Maya moves forward with her own attempt to reach into Virginia's heart, Ethius seems to be thinking to try and move past the troubled young woman's peripheral vision. For someone that appears most out of place of everyone, he seems intent on having a place.
The 'place' will have him, as the forces converge upon their psyches. Ethius brings that hand of his to his head out of habit, again, fingers digging into his forehead as he finds his footing less sure, into a crouch.
Between the cracks of his fingers, his one visible eye widens. What did he see? What did the nightmare call upon, deep down, as it thrust past the ash below, the stimulus behind, the patterns ahead?
Noise. He heard noise. Overbearing noise. Clearer shapes, yet, of grayer tones, yet complex arrangements of colors. Some glow. Some have small, narrow bits that move. Flames belch from one of the sides? Greens that turn black, flattening. It's--
Everywhere... somehow, overlaid and different from what this all is... eyes. Eyes, everywhere.
...Whatever this is, the nature of what the feasting nightmare may glean from it all is... it is a fear. It is delectable. It is the human psyche under assault, as much as any other, but some parts of it seem... alien.
The saving grace is that Ethius, the stranger whom has interfered, rests kneeling while Lucia moves ahead to appeal to the troubled young woman's psychoses.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'A heavy legacy's just a way to build a mega-strong heart to carry it!'
Hm. Ragnell tilts her head Lemina's way, eyebrows going up. The ends of her lips soon follow. Hehh... She'd thought Lemina kind of an airhead, based on that one encounter they had, but there's something to her. Her attention doesn't remark long, though, because there is an adorable pink flying cat coming up right behind her.
"Ruby?" she says, looking over at the little Red Dragon. "Sorry t' say, but I never heard of a way to purify Malevolence without usin' the Shepherd's power. After all, he only has that power 'cuz of his pact," she replies, leaving out several crucial but ultimately irrelevant details. "But. Sorey's a real softie. If you an' your friends can knock that kid out, I'd be willin' to bet he'll prioritize purifying her over startin' trouble with you an' yours." She turns away to face the enemy. "But it's still a bet. I don't know the kid *that* well. If that's not good enough--y'all are gonna have to figure somethin' out on your own."
There *is* the butterfly. It's been conspicuously present around Virginia, and it sure hasn't escaped Ragnell's notice. But, well, people have already been attacking it! Why tell people to do something they're already doing? That's just silly. Almost as silly as getting punched into a cake castle and eating your way back out, ZED. (Just kidding. Zed knows Ragnell thinks he's great.)
Speaking of which, Virginia's noticed her too. Ragnell pauses at her words, as if surprised to hear them. Then she chuckles, harsh and unyielding, her teeth sharp under her long grin. Will she never waver? Girl. Giiiirrrl. Do you not even know the meaning of 'commitment'?
"Damn right I can," she retorts, red eyes lancing into the Hellion.
Whatever Virginia's problem is, whatever issue that made her vulnerable to Malevolence, whatever bond she has with the others here, whatever punishment she gives to the two duelists for their incursion, is really none of Ragnell's concern. That doesn't mean that she's immune to the girl's power--but the illusion she'd conjured up before ironically gave her strength, in the same way that the others' respective bonds have empowered them. Ragnell continues to stroll forward, and though the curtains of power and howling illusions that surge against her make her slow, even to a snail's crawl, she never stops. Ragnell never, ever stops. With clear eyes, she sweeps her arms aside as if to open the curtain of maleficent visions. Only then do her feet come to a rest, only for a different motion to surge up beneath them in the form of a magic glyph.
But then Lucia makes her appeal, speaking of how gives received are gifts given, how difficult it is to allow oneself to rely on others, how she doesn't understand how it is that others would want to help her but she wants to reciprocate all the same. She truly seems to *mean* it, too. Ragnell stares at her, and the motes of Seraphic magic die down.
Ragnell never stops. But she *is* willing to back off and let others have center stage. After all, she literally doesn't know this girl at all, while the others seem to care for her deeply. She'd told Ruby earlier that they might have to find their own way if they don't want to rely on Sorey; she also wanted to see what the Lord of Calamity is really about. Well then... perhaps she'd better let them have that chance.
For the time being, she lowers her arms and watches the play(s) unfold.
GS: Seraph Ragnell has attacked Hiro with Helpful? Advice! GS: Seraph Ragnell has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Hiro takes a solid hit from Seraph Ragnell's Helpful? Advice for 0 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Hiro! GS: Reload! Hiro gains 15 extra FP from Seraph Ragnell! GS: Ethius Hesiod has attacked Ethius Hesiod with No Action! GS: Ethius Hesiod has completed his action. GS: Ethius Hesiod takes a solid hit from Ethius Hesiod's No Action for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline stumbles back, her mind once again assaulted by visions from her past.
The fear, of leaving those she cared about behind to set out on her journey.
The pain, as one wrong move resulted her being left for dead on the side of the road, her wares ransacked.
The shame she felt, knowing she profited off of the pain and misery of others, despite wanting to help.
But, again...
Jacqueline shakes her head, once more pulling herself up.
"You're the one not understanding. This isn't the way to face your problems. You're just throwing a tantrum. They're trying to help you!" She says.
As Jacqueline speaks, she rummages through her bags and pulls out a pair of bottles.
"By working together...people can create something greater than the sum of their parts. But how about a demonstration?"
A pale-blue potion, signifying healing, and a black potion, her repellant, come from her bag.
These are set on top of her wall, and a third bottle comes out - this one empty. She pours the two potions into the same bottle, and shakes.
And shakes.
At this point, the two have mixed in, mixed together, and...they almost appear to be glowing?
"I won't charge you for this. It's a free sample, so catch!" With that said Jacqueline leaps up on top of her wall and hurls it over towards Virginia.
It was an awful smelling liquid, as one might expect from anything mixed with Jacqueline's repellant, and it seemed to drain's one energy just by coming into contact with it.
For you see, when you mix repellant and a healing potion, you create...a potion that chases away health.
An anti-healing potion, if you will.
She didn't like doing this, but...it had to be done.
GS: Jacqueline Barber has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Apothecary's Regret! GS: Jacqueline Barber has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Lucia's Power Charge for 0 hit points! GS: Hyper! Statuses applied to Virginia Maxwell! GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Jacqueline Barber's Apothecary's Regret for 234 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
Lemina's heart refuses to flinch, desperate to save Virginia -- to protect Maya -- to make real the hope that Lucia so often feels so powerless to turn into reality. Dreams turn into nightmares: her mother dead. Malevolence washing over Vane. Over Lunar. Over the Blue Star. Over everything. A thousand years passing in an instant. Vane an archaeological footnote for some enterprising explorer beyond the stars.
Lemina's body shakes -- but even so, the darkness can't strip her of the conviction she's found in the face of it. She stays close to Maya, just behind her. "... You two seem like something worth believing in," she offers, quietly, as she shifts her staff to a one-handed grip and pulls out her umbrella with the other.
Her head cants to one side, and she hears Ragnell, finally, over the roar of the battlefield. "We'll figure something out no matter what!" she calls to the Seraph, before swinging her staff out to one side and then pointing it forward.
A gout of fire flies out from her staff, exploding further just before it reaches Virginia. It's more to put her off balance than to actively harm her -- she really doesn't want to hurt Virginia, even if there may be no other choice...
GS: Lemina Ausa has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Flame Bomb! GS: Lemina Ausa has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Lemina Ausa's Flame Bomb for 84 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Virginia Maxwell!
<Pose Tracker> Corwynt has posed.
Corwynt exhales, for the first time in close to a minute, and sags forward ever so slightly as Zed vanishes into the castle of evil cake. He flexes his right hand tentatively - Goddess, what on earth was that man made of? - and then closes it firmly. Hurting, but still functional. And he's weary, but still capable of carrying out the Goddess's will. He takes a step forward, then stops at the sound of exploding cake and ADD. His eyes widen, and he brings both arms up in a crossed block just in time for Zed to rip into him.
Fun fact: metal vambraces are not useful in blocking electricity.
The little man is blown backward again, his limbs twitching spasmodically as he bounces off the ground and rolls. He tries to get up, but his legs won't support his weight; Corwynt grits his teeth, focuses his power and shouts, dispelling the remnant charge with a flicker of the Goddess's power. "What in Althena's name ARE you?" he roars as he tears the vambraces from scarred forearms, metal screaming as it's sheared away.
And then darkness falls, and the combatants are driven into the grip of hell-spawned abominations. Corwynt has half a second to react, and reacts with violence, driving another hurricane-force blow into the belly of one of the twisted monsters. But it does not break and there are more besides, and though Corwynt fights with the fury of the storm, he finds himself breaking against the spine of the world. This, he thinks dully as a clawed paw shreds into his back, tearing his gi from his body and spinning him around. This is the true power of the Destroyer, laid bare for them all. A many-fanged maw opens wide to swallow him; Corwynt drives a fist through and into the brain, but another opens a slash across his forehead, blinding him with blood. He rips the arm off one's body but takes a rib-shattering kick for his price, driving him back to bounce along the turf, digging a bloody furrow in the tenebrous countryside. He laughs, weakly and wetly, swallowing the metallic tang in his mouth. This is it, then, he thinks. All he has to do is lie here, and it will be over. He'll be with them again. And he's done all he could.
Except you haven't.
"I know," he rasps, his voice a broken thing as he rolls to his arms and knees. "I know I haven't," he sobs, tears carving furrows through his crimson-drenched face. "Because she's still alive," he says, fingers tearing into the earth, white-green power leaking from his body. "I can feel her," Corwynt says, his voice gaining strength. "I can taste the vileness of her soul, slipping from her body with every breath - tainting the air you give us! With her every breath!" His words are a sobbing prayer to the Blessing in his body, which begins to carve through the Malevolence once more. "I will not die!" Corwynt screams.
And then a second version of himself, like an after-image but blazing with pure power, steps out from behind him.
"I must not die!" they both scream, and two more step out.
"I cannot die!" four voices ring out, to be joined by another four as eight versions of the Storm Fist ready themselves for battle, then leap at the Abominations to deliver a single blow with all the power of the hurricane. "BECAUSE ALTHENA IS WITH ME!"
GS: Corwynt has activated a Force Action! GS: Corwynt has activated a Force Action! GS: Corwynt has activated a Force Action! GS: Corwynt has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Wind God's Fury! GS: Corwynt has completed his action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Corwynt's Wind God's Fury for 171 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
Catching the boomerangs on their return, in a one two of his hand where he afixes them both together, then slams it back down in his sheath, he doesn't really notice any effect upon the target. It's strange though, he'd swear even from a distance- Virginia looked like she was in pain from that. Catching Maya's eye he manages this tiny grin, "How can we do anything less after she believed in her?"
But- Virginia- Virginia- Virginia.
The malevolent wave screams within his soul and his perception twists again. The youth staggers, then falls to his kenes, holding his head as he suffers. His very beliefs fall away before him. He can believe fully that-
He's surprised when Lucia steps forward, through the path. And starts to speak. He stares dumbfounded, but then wonder overtakes him, overwriting those visions to see- her as he truly is, "Lucia..." She speaks in such a heartfelt way, he's amazed at how far she's come since the day they first met.
He rises up to his feet slowly, moves closer as Lucia speaks, still behind her some. "Virginia- I know you haven't met Lucia before, but it was really hard for her to say all that- to tell you how she felt." His eyes flit up to her. "I think you should do the same with Maya. Rely on her a bit. The two of you need to rely on each other."
Meanwhile, Ragnell gives her advice to Ruby and the dragonling bobs her head excitedly- "Seriously!? You really think he'd give up the opportunity to go after her?" Then he'll take the opportunity to go at Lucia. The advice seems like a double edged sword but- "Figure something out!? That's the best you've got!?" She thought Seraphs were supposed to be fonts of wisdom. She thought Ragnell would have the best answers!
But then she gulps and- "Right- I'll let them know-" She sounds like she's grumbling. But- she flies rapidly to the front, "Everyone!" "Yeah Ruby?" "A really wise Seraph told me that if we can't get her to stop on her own then we ought to-" Hiro leans forward eagerly, "Knock her out and bring her to Sorey!"
The young man blinks twice, and then he looks like the news has physically struck him, "Wait that's what you've got!?" Well she's convinced Sorey will help her- no matter what, even if Lucia is there."
Raising his wrong impromptu shield he rubs his nose, "We were going to do that anyhow... but it helps to know a Seraph has that much faith in him." Yes, faith, that's definitely what Ragnell has when it comes to Sorey.
Sucking in a breath, he raises his sword, and the winds suddenly pick up, flowing around the blade in such density that it can be felt- almost visible. Part of him is still worried about how this will go but- he whirls that blade around once, after a single revolution, blades of wind where they're sent high in the air- above Virginia's position. "Ginny- I'm sorry." The blades fall apart at a certain height, erupting into a blast of wind that billows outward with the force of a hurricane. He really doesn't want to hurt her either... but...
Right now they may all have to a little, for their own good.
GS: Hiro has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Sybillium Sword! GS: Hiro has completed his action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Hiro's Sybillium Sword for 153 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Hearing Lemina tlak about her strong heart doesn't make Jean smile in these circumstances, but it registers in her own, speaks there as she looks back to offer Lemina a big thumbs-up from her position further ahead.
Maya is still moving forward; she remembers how close she was with Virginia. So many others are speaking up here, and Jean is still trying to get forward.. until the butterfly flows around her attacks with strange laughter, though Virginia seems to be grimacing. There must be something...
"The truth before your eyes isn't always real," Jean answers Virginia. "I may already--" Bolts. Virginia's questioning, and Jean isn't the one who knows her best regardless, she knows. But forgetting that, she has to make sure, she has to...
As Virginia tells why, there is magic thrown out among them, and the errant spirits swirling about latch onto Jean, sinking into her arm and then her shoulder as they find something in Jean. Yes, she's strong-willed, and yet...
Her fists are bloody; she's covered in bruises. Her hair back, she huffs out as she looks at her doned opponent, and knows as she darts her eyes at her trainer that she can't ask if she's all right. She isn't th first today. Jean is already bloody, and little of it is her own. She looks down at herself and see's a child's arms, and--
"NO!"
Before she knew it, Jean has found herself on the ground, on her hands and knees, tile beneath her as she tries to catch her breath. The bruises feel so real, even now. Looking up, she sees... a different kind of martial artist. "All right--"
She sees Lucia talking with Virginia, and that surprises her. What she can do it... Give her time to do it.
"Let's keep talking!" she says, and spins in place, purple magic bursting from her as she swings her face in a graceful dance--that turns into yellow, spectral bees crashing through to chase down the butterfly and weaken that magic.
GS: Jean has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Bee Dance! GS: Jean has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Jean's Bee Dance for 38 hit points! GS: Disrupt and Weaken! Statuses applied to Virginia Maxwell!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Does it pain Maya to see Virginia, as warped as she may have become, struggling against the onslaught of spells and strikes? Yes, of course it does. This is the same girl who would rather make peace with squiggly monsters and keep them as pets than raise a hand in anger. This is the innocent, braided princess from the dusty end of nowhere who faced the cruel desert with a shining smile and open arms, against all common wisdom. It stings immensely.
But the pain is a pang of sympathy and the reminder of the bond they share together, strengthened still by the many ways in which they are similar and yet oh, so different. And the beleaguered Scion of Schrodinger can see that it is hardly something carried on her shoulders alone.
If only she knew the weight behind Lucia's words.
If only she understood the fear Lemina would overcome to stand by her side.
If only she sensed the pain in Jean's heart, beneath that gentle smile.
If only she saw how the scars and wounds Gwen bore would not slow her.
If only she could feel the gulf of trust ]bridged by the wary Seraph.
If only she could teach Ethius, right now, what this girl meant to her.
Maya Schrodinger does not quite comprehend all of these things. Not consciously. After all--she is but one girl on her last legs before a terrifyingly cosmic might.
"You were already close by my side... were you scared, to fly away so suddenly?" she asks of Virginia, in the moments before the storm of violet nightmares crashes upon her once more. But this time, the dormant memories fail to rise to the surface. The Malevolence finally fails to find purchase on the girl's body or soul, sloughing off of her like water from an oiled duster when the storm has passed. Though it may bite, and though her stamina may wane--not once does she lose herself as she has, so many times before.
Standing tall, strange words come to the Drifter's lips. "Everyone's pretty amazing, huh?" Maya asks of Lucia, directly. She doesn't look over her shoulder, no, that would be disrespectful. She's stepped back so neither of them is front of the other. Almost as if they exist in another bubble of time in contrast to the frenzied fight for survival consuming everyone else. She asks this question and casts her gaze slowly forward. "Maybe that's why I feel so calm. Well..."
Lemina wisely hides behind Maya, and will find that such a position is close enough to her bubble of reality that she can feel a little of that emotional warmth--aided by the way the woman reassuringly reaches back and steadies herself on the Vane inheritor's shoulder. "Let's bring her back together."
As an action, it's almost an afterthought that a billion glowing grains of sand whorl together from thin air into the palm of Maya's hand and solidy into the form of her long-barrel pistol.
Projection Complete.
Maya squints casually and fires at the fluttering butterfly that took her Ginny away...!
GS: Maya Schrodinger has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Try Your Best! GS: Maya Schrodinger has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Maya Schrodinger's Try Your Best for 112 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
If it was burning before, it's now drowning.
Gwen sags from the weight of it, dropping to one knee. All the anger, the resentment, the loneliness, the excessive pride, the way she felt the warmth of her ARM and felt that she could take on anything, anyone, and take and take and keep taking everything she ever wanted or was denied.
But nothing she could grasp by force could quite equal what she'd found. Not just in Adlehyde, but with Frea. The way Frea looked at her before she guided her into sleep with a limited supply of anesthetic, so gentle, so unlike the gruff woman who yelled at visitors and told Gwen she shouldn't call her anything but Frea. But this was Frea too, the one who relented to the title of 'Aunt', then 'Auntie', who looked on in surprise when Gwen tried harder and harder to fix a food the woman could stand eating, no matter how replusive the concoction may have seemed to anyone's eyes.
Because that was Gwen too. She genuinely liked being with people. She wanted to be strong enough to see the world, not to take it.
Gwen was too wrapped in her own nightmare to realize the tactics others were engaging in, at first. Ruby, she was calling her name earlier, wasn't she? Hiro and Jean were attacking that butterfly, too, so.
Ragnell is saying something. Knocking her out. "... H-hey, I can do that, right?" The courier looks over her shoulder. "If Lucia's plan doesn't work, I'll try to knock her out." But what could she do until then?
Maya shows her the way with her own actions. "....The butterfly." She'll just have to...
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Follow Maya's Lead! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Follow Maya's Lead for 110 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"What am I?" Zed throws back his head and laughs, casting a jubilant figure in spite of the great, blue-black welt swallowing up one side of his forehead. Clearly, the power of cake can cure all ills. "I told you! I am Zed. The Dark Hero." He brandishes his blade, Doombringer glistening with ominous, reflected light. An electrical arc leaps from arm to sword and licks out into the excited air. "But what you do not know... Is that I am also the Grim Reaper's Pen Pal. The Ultimate Macho Man. The--"
Curtain falls.
"Wh--" Zed blinks. The curtain comes up. He looks up. He looks down. He turns about and stares at the cardboard cutout decorations and whirls back around just in time to see that what was once a cheering audience has turned into a horde of ravenous beasts. No! "No! What is this!? This... This is super-stardom's black face...! The dark underside of fame and fortune!"
They come.
They close.
"Back!" Zed growls, his blade flashing, his body twisting and turning like a dancing dervish truly fit for the stage. Doombringer cleaves into one and deflects a second. A third smashes a fist into his ribs, sending a sickening series of wet pops reverberating through the hollow of his chest. "Khhh," Zed growls as he smashes into a paper mache starfish with a terrifying, rictus grin. "Back I say! If you want an autograph, you'll need to line up properly!" He fells another, driving a fist into its jaw before ripping its head from its body. It twists through the air moments before Zed's free hand seizes around its twine spine and craters another monster's skull with the makeshift flail.
But there are many.
There are so many.
Zed glances sideways. Corwynt is still rambling about... About evil or malevolence or what have you. "Crazy," Zed mutters. "Is this what they call faith? Pffah. But..."
"Your zeal. I do not disapprove of it." He turns his eye back unto the horde of monsters. One swats for his skull. Zed seizes the arm and snaps it off at the joint. "You know. You're right!" Zed calls to the RED VOICE. "I DID EAT YOUR CAKE! AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT!?"
Zed leaps. He kicks off a giant, plush bear's face, sending him... Right into the path of Corwynt's eightfold strike. "IT WAS DELICIOUS! But..." He glances back. He needs to time this.
Perfectly.
Doombringer gleams. Corwynt strikes, eight fists as one. Zed leaps along with the force of the blow. The power of the hurricane drives his charge. He roars as he surges forward, surrounded by a vortex of pure power. Zed strikes once, carving a swath through the horde.
He kicks off a castle wall, rebounding, cratering the cake and twisting back at an oblique angle with blade shedding its blinding light. Once more, he cuts a great gash, leaving shattered bodies in his wake. He kicks off the stage, unleashing yet another shockwave of force and diverting his path for the second time, parallel to the first.
He smashes into the wall.
One last kick.
One last cut.
"I respect his power. His faith." Zed says, eyes flashing briefly towards his bold foe. "His courage. I admire his technique, and the strength of his convictions. A HEART! INVINCIBLE AGAINST THE DARKNESS!" Doombringer blazes and sings with the song of battle and the inexorable optical drumbeat of carnage made into light. "I feel it, his fury resonating with my own! Against you-- your feeble walls of delicious cake, your legions of doom, your nightmares made manifest, YOUR BORROWED POWER!"
Zed swings, one last time. A pinprick of light leaps from his blade, then doubles, then triples, quadruples, transforming into a vast current of power that surges back down the path he carved into the land. "TWO HEARTS THAT SING OUT 'LIFE' WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL!"
"BEHOLD AND BREAK!"
--==SPLIT LADLE - SAKURA SUPERNOVA==--
The path.
The enormous Z.
EXPLODES.
GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has activated a Force Action! GS: Zed has attacked Virginia Maxwell with Split Ladle Sakura Supernova! GS: Zed has completed his action. GS: CRITICAL! Virginia Maxwell takes a solid hit from Zed's Split Ladle Sakura Supernova for 315 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
It is, indeed, hard to tell whether or not Lucia being spared from attack is coincidence or not, but... she gazes towards Lucia's brilliant green stare, gripped in her words for a moment. "The strength... to trust in others... to share your burden..."
Once more, like rolling waves that cascade back and forth as the tides would... her expression softens again, and yet that butterfly swans into her gaze, and she redoubles her anger. "... I envy you ..." she hisses, but beneath it is the tone of loneliness. "Even when I came in with you all... I feel like I still didn't..."
She leaves that thought unfinished, but Lucia, perhaps, can understand from someone who just admitted she came from a similar position. The strangeness of accepting help from strangers... to truly feel like one belongs... that's a difficult thing indeed.
She gazes for just a moment at where Ethius has crouched, frowning. Just... just what is this strange thing that she can see? She's not sure if she likes it, at all. Equally so, she peers at the Seraph and frowns, saying, "That's the kind of conviction I want... that's the kind of conviction I have!"
Jay's potion comes her way, and Gosh bless Ginny, she's still curious as all heck as she uncorks it and takes one whiff of it--
"Euuuuugh!! BARF!!"
She hucks it away and splashes it on her teddy bear, who flails and screams and runs away in shame. Coincidentally, Lemina's flare bomb lands next ontop of it as Ginny swats it away, and the teddy bear goes 'aaaaaah' as vile potion mixes with firebombs. BEAR ON FIRE. "I--I'm not sure your analogy holds up at all!! What a-- what a boorish way to demonstrate your point! APOLOGISE!"
She raises her hands deftly, her eyes widening as she braces for Hiro's incoming attack. She winces, and she knows that her barriers are about to become depleted. She can't stay here. The whirlwind crushes through in a wholesale fashion, sending her backwards and nearby to one of her ramparts... but she continues to rise, breathing heavily.
"Rely on each other..."
While Virginia is distracted, Jean gives chase after the butterfly once more, who ebbs ever closer, seemingly casual and not a part of any of this...
It floats ever stronger, even amidst her powerful torrent of spectral bees. Do they produce spectral honey? None can truly say. The martial arts is mysterious in that regard. For a moment, it seems like it could be shred in half, and Jean feels her nonphysical blows connect against something--
And Maya and Gwen's pistol shreds through its wings--
--but it flashes, and Virginia doubles over with a sudden screech of pain, holding onto her chest.
"Come back... come back to me..." Virginia whispers desperately, as that thrice-damned butterfly flows back and onto her fingertips. She's battered and shredded, at this point, with not much magic left to protect her. Soon, she'll start to take real damage, and there won't be much protection left of her at that point.
What about her guardians--
Elsewhere, in the midst of all the savagery, Corwynt awakens to the true fury of the Wind God, and Zed awakens to the true fury of a ladle split in twine! At least, I think that's... how the metaphor goes. And all eight copies of Corwynt -- which is real? -- shred through Virginia's abominations like they were not so much creatures, but paper, accomodated by Zed's overwhelming strikes of light. Blow after blow, their strikes land true as they shred and tear apart in a whirlwind of fury and violence.
"Maya... was I really...?"
She closes her eyes, and holds the butterfly closer to her hand.
"I was scared. I still am. ... was I just fooling myself...?" she mumbles, nearly entirely bedazzled from the enormous strikes that've struck her through the butterfly. "... I... need to know... for myself... I... I...!!"
That same violet pattern erupts underneath her feet, seeming as if it will become another, even worse attack. But... it never comes. Instead, she cascades away, her form slowly turning into a trail of beautiful, ethereal fragments as she spirits herself away.
The last glance she gives the group, tearful, is the loneliest one she's displayed yet.
...
And with the source of the Malevolence gone, it doesn't last long before the structures start to break apart into what they truly are -- broken remnants of Lahan, a wall here, a supporting beam there, awnings from a once-proud townhouse, patches of grass. There's nary but a trace of the Malevolence -- it doesn't even taint in the same way it typically does, so strongly associated with Virginia that it leaves wholesale.
One question remains.
If it wasn't red velvet... ...
... what did Zed eat?
GS: Virginia Maxwell has fled the area! Dropped 3 gella. (What? You think she left home with a lot of cash?)
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
As the nexus of the oppressive emotional fog dissipates, the stunned, wide-eyed Ethius comes to a rise with his back facing almost everything and everyone of interest. While many of the Drifters gathered have shared their love and warmth and companionship with one another, this man... this strange man...
"This complicates matters," he says, with having barely laid eyes upon the form of Virginia disappearing into the light. The words he speaks are clinical, dry. No screams for a friend's name, just a simple admission that a matter has become complicated.
Ethius is, once again, in the presence of some very interesting people. Whatever pattern there is to who grabs his attention and why - if anyone's bothered to track - he never looks back at any of them. Not to the Vile Fiends, not to the Lord of Calamity... the latter of whom is, by far, one of the most eye-catching people to walk the wastes of Filgaia.
A hand goes to his head. He, of all the gathered, walked in among the most stable. As the nightmare grew deeper, this flipped on its head. He seemed unable to stand back up and reach out to her - a lack of an emotional connection failing to empower him to the same goal as the rest, then, or...?
"Pay me no further mind," he says, back still turned to everyone as he starts to walk off from the wastes of Lahan. Away from the action, away from the intrigue, towards... what, exactly?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
'Figure something out!? That's the best you've got!?'
Ragnell gives a little shrug. "Generally speakin', that's what you do when you're tryin' something no one else has tried," she points out. "And cleansin' Malevolence when you don't have any power of purification? Well. If anyone's tried it, they sure as hell haven't succeeded before now."
Leaving that gem in Ruby's noggin, Ragnell leaves the dragonlet to pass the message on to Hiro. She half-smiles at his groan of a response, as well as his failure to let it get him down... much. Faith in the Shepherd? Well... That's one way of putting it, certainly. In the same way, when Corwynt screams defiance against the audience that surges up at Virginia's bidding to rip him and Zed to shreds, and Zed roars in that uniquely Zed way of his, before both of them launch a ridiculously sweet (one might call it "sweetdiculous") counterattack, Ragnell tilts a look their way, watching the two warriors for a moment. Then she smiles slightly and returns her focus to the battle at large. As Hiro sets that squall towards Virginina, as Jean unleashes magical bees upon her magical butterful, Lemina shouts back to Ragnell that they'll find their own way. Ragnell grins back at her.
"That's the spirit!" she shouts back. "Adversity makes you strong, so fight back and find a way through with everything you got!!" And if this is the choice that everyone else has made--well, she's here already. Why not lend a hand?
She tosses a half-shrug Gwen's way--use enough force and you could probably knock anyone out--but Virginia's words reach her ears, and Ragnell slides her a look with narrowed eyes. "No you don't," she says bluntly, of Virginia having that kind of conviction. "If you did, you wouldn't need to rely on someone else's power to do what you have to."
Blows cascade in. Rather than knocking her out into unconsciousness, they seem to knock her out of reality itself. Once she's gone, so too is the "castle" she's conjured, leaving behind only the ruins of Lahan. The rest of the battle, with Sword Dancer and the Trial Knight... Ragnell looks around with a slight frown, but she won't see to that right away. Instead, she looks over towards Ethius--he still doesn't seem to be able to see her--and notes his mumbling, before she strolls on over to Lucia, Destroyer, Lord of Calamity, etc etc etc.
Funny enough, with the other Malevolence gone, and Lucia still here, it's like nothing has really particularly changed. Perhaps that's why Ragnell can, with all due nonchalance, say, "Howdy. Lucia, right?" She thrusts a hand out in greeting. "The name's Ragnell. Been wantin' to meet ya."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Finally, finally, they seemed to be making some progress. But then, Virginia...disappears?
And with her goes the rest of the illusions.
With a sigh, Jacqueline sits down on top of her wall. They might have weathered Virginia's attacks, but this wasn't the outcome they were hoping for. Where did she go? Would she be alright? And what happened to the others?
Jacqueline massages her forehead. How frustrating. But...there was one person who was likely hurting more than anyone else here about this, as far as she knew.
"...How're you holding up?" Jacqueline asks, glancing up to Maya.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Watching Virginia disappear, Gwen just stands there, looking lost. "... Did I do the wrong thing...?"
And that's where she stays for a while, before finally seeming to remember there are others around her. Including... Lucia.
"So you're, ah, Lucia..." She's holding out a hand, then, but finds herself instead grasping a hand onto Lucia's shoulder. "Um. Thank you." This is Lucia. The person an entire world calls the Lord of Calamity. And Gwen feels the instinct to hug her.
Just because Hiro's her buddy doesn't mean she should hug Lucia like she is! Not yet!!
Gwen then realizes that her handkerchief is not only gone from her neck, the first few buttons of her blouse are also open. While it's hardly anything risque, what follows is a weird mix of vanity and modesty, as she tries to button her blouse up with her right hand. And failing. Her handkerchief is gone. Her handkerchief is-
Even if that handkerchief wasn't anything special or of note, losing it seems to strike the final, necessary chord for Gwen to do something that comes pretty naturally for her, when things are settling down.
She just begins bawling. She wants to cry on the nearest shoulder there is, but that's... Lucia.
That might make things awkward for Hiro. Somehow. She's not sure. Instead, she finds herself going towards.... Zed. Yeah, she's cried on him once, it should be okay.
Some people can't cry. She'll just be the first to cry, and everyone can cry with her and say it was because she did. This plan will go smoothly.
Except now she's just doing that perplexing bawling on Zed's shoulder, her hand still clasped on Lucia's shoulder, since she, in her haste to cry, never actually... released Lucia from her grasp. This is either the worst or best plan she's had all day.
She just wishes she could get Virginia's last expression out of her head...
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya Schrodinger is still, perfectly so, as the skies lighten and the illusory projection cast over the village of Lahan fades. Hot tears run swiftly down her cheeks as the image of Virginia shatters and fades, beyond the barrel of her weapon. That she'd even point the damn thing in the girl's remote direction fills her with a guilt that shakes her convictions to their core.
"I'll come after you, you fool..." she murmurs quietly as everything catches up to her. Her shoulders slump, and her orange coat flutters down from where that tower of roses once stood. It somehow lands perfectly across her back, because I demand it to. "And we'll walk all those first steps again together." Oh, God, it really hurts. All the confusion and sickness that had her lying low is washed away, and in its place is something beautiful and painful.
But it isn't like she's doubled over weeping or anything, the Drifter just standing still as her arm lowers slowly. Until a voice yanks her from her reverie. Jacqueline, wearied as she must be, is still looking out for her.
"Oh--I'm doin' okay. I don't really understand all the ins and outs of what's going on, but I'm just glad I found her again..." Maya laughs a slightly confused and sad laugh full of warmth, having turned to face the other woman, as she flicks a tear from her cheeks with a smile and then uses the same hand to reach over and start patting the sobbing Gwen on the back. Well, she was right next to Lucia, after all. "Seems like a lot of that's going around with this, huh...?"
<Pose Tracker> Lucia has posed.
"I am unendingly amazed by humanity," Lucia replies solemnly to Maya, though her phrasing implies a certain distance from that population. It's not like her ears are pointy or flappy or anything. Maybe she means something else.
Her eyes narrow as Virginia vanishes, but it isn't with shock or grief -- it is more thoughtful than anything. Analytical, even. Her thoughts are razors, and it is only with "I will help you help her," she repeats, softly, an echo of her earlier self.
Ragnell rolls up and Lucia sees and hears her normally, which might look a little odd to other people. She is, however, unable to accept the Seraph's hand because it, and the rest of her arm up to the shoulder, has just been engulfed by Gwen. That's okay, though. Even though the woman herself stands there poleaxed and totally unsure what to do -- she blinks doe-eyed past the bawling Gwen at Hiro, Jean and Lemina, clearly silently inviting some advice as to the appropriate response -- her cloak is quite large and soft and good for nose-honking, or even just tear-soaking.
After a moment, she seems to realize its utility, and shrugs it off, wrapping it around the other woman like a blanket.
"Ye-es, I am Lucia," she offers Ragnell, afterwards, sounding kind of helpless. As advertised...
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
The world goes white. Power overwhelming domes upward into the sky. When it's gone, Virginia remains. But then, she too disappears, leaving...
...
Lahan.
Zed frowns, staring at a distinctly Zed-shaped hole in what looks like a broken-down gear. Zed's tummy rumbles ominously. Oh. Oh no. That is not good. That is not--
There is a woman on his shoulder.
She is making strange noises...!!
"Wh-- What! WHAT! Gwen!" Zed gawps, arm-flailing like the horrible-with-emotions person that he is. "G-gwen! Why are you leaking again!? WHAT HAPPENED!?"
He looks to a distinctly familiar Red Cloaked and BLUE HAIRED woman. "Lucia! Lucia, what has happened to her? I do not know!" Beat. "Yes. Yes, the cloak is a good idea! Zed's arms flail... Around his neck. Specifically, around his scarf. He unwinds it! And then gently dabs at Gwen's face. "No leaking, okay? Those liquids are important. You need to keep them inside of you until there's no choice otherwise!"
<Pose Tracker> Lemina Ausa has posed.
"No -- no!" Lemina cries out as the butterfly moves closer to Virginia. "Please -- come back! Maya needs...!" Even as she feels the warmth of Maya's little bubble of asserted existence, Lemina still ends up with the distinct sensation that she's -- and, for that matter, all of them have -- been left out in the cold.
She stays close to Maya as she sees those slumping shoulders, and that helpless feeling in her gut kicks up. It feels like it's spreading out in a wave -- one by one, everyone's finding the breaches and faults concealed in the shape of their hearts.
... and yet, Maya finds the most heartening part of all of it, somehow. "... yeah," Lemina offers her, quietly, as she puts her staff and her umbrella back away. She takes a long, steadying breath, and lets it out.
Sometimes, that's all you can do.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"Ginny! It's okay to be scared- it's-" That tearful gaze takes his breath away. That lonely one. He wants to go after her, but he can't. How do you go after someone who dissolves into a trail of etheral fragments. They didn't? He reaches out a hand, weakly, then sighs as the landscape changes, and puts his sword back inside it's sheath.
That's the kind of image he'll take with him.
Ragnell strides up, and at first the youth is just staring forward, at that spot, before he checks where that assailant has gone off to- and- Gwen is right there, "Hey Gwen. Yeah this is Lucia. Wish I could have introduced you to her somewhere else- other than... here." He looks kind of awkward about that.
But Gwen starts bawling, on Lucia's shoulder- after all she's gone through, if anyone has a right to cry, it's Gwen. She'd had such a rough time dealing with malevolence, letting herself get close to people. And yet that doe-eyed look Lucia gives him of not knowing what to do. He rests a hand on Gwen's shoulder, "Sometimes people just need to have a good cry Lucia. When everything builds up to be too much."
He clears his throat, as if he wants to save Lucia for this situation, and maybe give her an example of how to handle these moments, "Hey Gwen... Gwen... you need a hug?" He says quietly, but Ragnell strides up, To him, she looks as ephemeral as the landscape, "Whoa! Did- are you a- ghost? Friendly ghost?"
In contrast to Rose, he seems more curious about this, than frightened. "Obviously she's a Seraph Hiro! The one who gave us the advice?" He scratches his china s if in consideration, "Hey uh- nice to meet you." A beat, his hand shifts behind his head, "I don't really know what you're supposed to do when you meet a Seraph. Am I supposed to bow?" He asks, not really getting a distinct enough image to see that she's offering Lucia a handshake.
Ruby briefly gets up into his face, "What!? No! You hang out with a Red Dragon after all. No just play it cool and treat her as normal! Don't embarrass me here Hiro!"
The thought of Hiro bowing to Mikleo upon meeting him was too embarrassing for words.
He then gives Zed a tired thumbs up, "Hey Zed- you really came through for us in the clutch there. Don't know what we would have done without you."
<Pose Tracker> Jean has posed.
Jean tried to watch Virginia as best she could, to listen to her. SHe doesn't know how this works, but she saw what was working, what was happening, and she can feel her magic connecting. But the things that she says, the looks she give, are so lonely. There's so much pain there.
It makes Jean's heart ache enough that the world breaking apart into what it was seems entirely normal. That pain stays even as it regsters that this means that Virginia is gone. But what can she say? The woman in off-white looks down, sighing, as she checks her fans, goes through her usual post-battle moment. But Maya...
Maya finds that. She finds that one moment, that good thing. Then she seems to spot Lucia and sees her. Lucia puts her coat around Gwen, and Jean offers a thumbs-up in her direction, nodding along in tired encouragement. She looks over at Lemina with them, and walks to the group long enough to see Ragnell and say, "I'm... going to go around that clif if you need me. I need a little time to myself." Her voice uncharacterstically soft and shaky, though not without her usual force. "Just a little. I'll be back." A forced laugh, "Don't leave without me, all right?" With that, she pats Hiro on the shoulder in passing and starts to go.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"I think we're all pretty confused here." Jacqueline replies, getting to her feet and brushing dust off of her dress. She offers a slight smile to Maya.
Looking into the pile of comfort that was building up around Gwen, Jacqueline almost felt tempted to join in on it...but for now, she decides to distance herself. She didn't really feel comfortable encroaching in on it like that.
"...But we're all still alive, so there's time to figure things out. And, for what it's worth, you've got my help too, for when the time comes around. Just as long as you keep trying, you'll get her back." She continues.
Despite her words, though, she couldn't help but feel a bit uncertain. Just what was happening to the world, that evil was preying on even someone like Virginia?
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell holds out a hand to Lucia in greeting. Before Lucia can do anything with it, Gwen latches into it, and Zed, and starts bawling. Ragnell gawks at her, then runs that hand through her two-toned hair with as much befuddlement as she feels. At least Zed's equally befuddled, super-panicked flailing brings a laugh to her throat. Leaking. Leaking! Honestly! But there's Lucia, and in the throes and waves of the Malevolence she exudes, her response to this woman's obvious distress is... to put a cloak around her shoulders in some attempt to comfort her. This small kindness is consistent with her behavior all through the battle.
Ragnell watches this with interest. She, after all, had no stake in this battle--and so Virginia's sudden disappearance doesn't have the significance for her that it did for the others. In the same way, she looks around at the battlefield, at Lemina's cries of denial, at Maya's resilience and determination, Jay's uncertain positivity, Jean's need for space, and Hiro's--blatant surprise? Ragnell blinks at him.
"Huh," she utters. "You can see me now?" She raises an eyebrow at Ruby, as if to say 'what's up with that?' Still, he's not freaking out, so she just shrugs and smiles. "What Ruby said. Don't worry 'bout it too much, Hiro." She winks at Ruby, then takes a quick look around. Corwynt seems to have gone as suddenly as he appeared, so there's no danger of Round Two. Even if the Althena's Guardsman *were* still here, though, Ragnell would still look back at Lucia and say, "You sure don't *act* like a Lord of Calamity."
There's nothing particularly judgmental or accusatory in her tone. It's simple statement, accompanied at best by undisguised curiosity.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
That Lucia is so precise and analytical about humans doesn't seem to find purchase in Maya's mind--or if it does, it seems of less importance than her other words and actions thus far. It is the kind of thing she will remember later, when she has recharged sufficiently to try and rebuild some facade of being cool. But that facade is getting thinner by the day, as she comes to rely more on the help of kind and noble strangers.
So, she blinks those tears back and takes a stern breath. The Schrodinger family head can't be out weeping and feeling sorry for herself, there are (self-made) standards to adhere to. "I'll be counting on you." she gratefully informs Lucia, the Lord of Hugs. She hasn't forgotten that feeling of warmth from earlier that yanked her back from the brink, and what that must say about the person capable of such a wonderful and loving feeling...
What Maya also does, importantly, is step back a little to make room for Ragnell, who she can quite clearly discern utterly, and for the heavily-sighing Lemina Ausa. She even motions subtly towards Jacqueline, a 'come-here' that might have been a moment too late. "... is that what you had to teach me, Virginia Maxwell...?" she asks the air with a sad smile, scratching her cheek and catching Jean's eye as the Simple Lunar Dancer makes her way from the scene. Does she--understand? Somehow? The weight that she carries, and the need to keep it buried? Can you convey such complex things with a glance?
Just watch me.
<Pose Tracker> Hiro has posed.
"We won't. Hey Jean." He says gently before she goes, "Training in the morning right? Same as always?"
He respects her privacy, her need for alone time- but he wants to let her know he's there for her too. If there's any lesson he's learned today from fighting Virginia.
Ragnell asks that and- he puts a hand up, palm over the ground, and kinda flips it back and forth. "Little bit? Can't say I can see you well." Though he can see her better than he could see Mikleo on that day. "Right- I guess the two of you know each other then." He's a little suspicious about that and Ruby kind of hunches her head down and giggles awkwardly, "You could- you could say that."
He reaches out and ruffles Ruby's head right over her bow. "Keeping up the tradition of having a little fun at my expense huh?" He grins at her, not mad at all. While Ruby flails and adjusts her bow with tiny pink pawsies. "Hey-Hiro! Don't- you're embarrassing me in front of Ragnell!"
But on her being the Lord of Calamity. "She's not."
It is a title given to those who are considered to have the power to upend the order of the world.
"She's not." He quickly repeats, softer, having difficulty arguing with that image of her having that kind of power. It's Maya's comment that brings him out of that, "It makes me happy to know more people are putting their faith in you, Lucia. And that you're one of them Maya."
After all. So much counts on her. A whole world in fact.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
There's someone dabbing at her cheeks. A cape around her shoulders. A hand or two on her shoulders, A-ah, well, this is very comforting, Gwen can't lie. But she also feels embarrassed. Maya's the one that needs all this. Ginny's Maya's buddy.
True to Hiro's words, Gwen, after having a good cry, seems to relax, as if Zed's words seem to have the affect he wanted. "Zed..."
She did promise him a hug, didn't she?
And that she does, wrapping her arms around Zed's chest in a tight hug. "You're the best dark hero ever, Zed!" Even if he has trouble dealing with tears.
A lot of guys are like that.
Parting from Zed, Gwen turns, rubbing a stray tear from one eye, and looking a Hiro. "I'd say I'm biased, but after seeing her in action, I find it pretty hard to believe she's lord of anything bad." Wait. Ah. There's still a cape around her. Gwen presents it to Lucia, then looks at the weepy stain on it. She should offer something more. "If, er, you guys need a secret trip someplace, try to get ahold of me. My cart can't fit everyone, but two or three'll be okay. I'm sure you'd like Gulliver, Lucia! He's very gentle!"
Her eyes drift to Maya then. How hard, must it be for her?
There is one thing Gwen can do, perhaps, for her.
Walking over, Gwen calls her name, then presses a hand on the woman's shoulder. "With a light like yours, she'll find her way back." Then, if Maya allows for it, Gwen will lean forward to hug her as well. "I'm sure of it."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Watching all of this, Jacqueline lets out a small chuckle. It was heartwarming, after everything that had happened. That even here, amongst tragedy, they could share such a moment. She does somewhat regret not getting in on it personally, but...well, the moment had passed.
"If anyone needs tending to, or a trip back into town, I've got supplies back in my cart. To everyone else...take care, alright?" She says.
She wanted to stay to try to find and help the others but...she was spent. Mentally more than physically. Physically, she was fine, but it'd been...trying. Brought up things that were best forgotten.
Nothing to do but keep moving on, though. That's all they could do.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed! Is being hugged! "Ha-hawawawawawawawawawawhat are you doiiiing???" Zed... Is not good with this kind of thing. Not good at all! THESE WEIRD WARM FEELINGS, THEY ARE NOT ZEDDY AT ALL! "T-there there!" Zed sort of awkwardly hangs his arms around Gwen's shoulders? It's kind of a hug? KIND OF??? "Y-you'll be okay? I am pretty sure? Uh."
...Uh.
He looks to Hiro, he looks to Ragnell, he looks back to Gwen.
S-so much praise.
'The best dark hero ever?'
The warm feelings redouble. The strange heat in his chest crawls up into his cheeks. DEMONS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO BLUSH, BUT THERE IT IS. "Ahahaha! It was... It was nothing! Just... Doing my job as a Dark Hero, yes? I come to save the day, after all!"
But...
How much longer would he be able to play this role?
...
Isn't this what he wanted? Does he... Does he need to just throw it all away?
...
Difficult questions.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Huhhh... So Maya can see her too. Ragnell makes a note of that--even nods to Maya in silent acknowledgementgreetingthanks for moving out of her way. She also. Kind of. Openly snortlaughs when Gwen hugs Zed and calls him the best dark hero ever. And even moreso when Zed flails in response. "How cuuuuuuuuuuute," she drawls, eyes sparkling, grinning like an asshole, unaware of his inner turmoil. (But let's be real: that wouldn't actually stop her.)
To Hiro, she gives a bit of a shrug, a bit of a cocky half-smile. Is Hiro embarrassing Ruby in front of Ragnell? Maybe. But all she says on that is, "What's the point in followin' a human around if you can't have a bit of fun at their expense sometimes?"
'She's not,' he says of Lucia. Ragnell gives him a thoughtful look, no argument, no assent; just a thoughtful look. Lucia is busy receiving her cloak back from Gwen, so Ragnell just half-smiles. "So I hear," she says, giving Ruby a Meaningful Look. "But some things, people need to experience for themselves."
Exactly what is she trying to imply there?