2022-04-23: The Greater Good

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<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Plains like these are almost too beautiful a place for the Fangs to make their blood sacrifice. Almost. Valmar's curse is festering, demanding lives in exchange for their own again, and it does not matter how lovely the scenery. Xander's defiled worse. But the kills need to be discreet. Xander endeavors to be the kind of disaster that doesn't have every Geohound, Drifter, and would-be hero hunting him down. The attention they've already managed to attract is bad enough as it is.

Unfortunately, discretion is not with the Fangs today.

There's a commotion along the roads, and maybe those present are even here because someone called for help, shouting something about blasphemy and pointing in the direction of danger if asked. Or maybe they're seeing it for themselves without assistance:

One of the Church's martial priests, draped in holy garments, light haired, and sporting a crooked nose -- the kind from a past break healed poorly -- has taken it on himself to contend with the two cursed men. He's lost the upper hand, hitting the ground when Xander's scythe knocks him there, blood staining the grass. The wound, woefully (if you're the Fangs), isn't fatal.

But Xander's laughing. A choked sound, barely audible, with him doubled over, hand over his face as he fights to get control of himself. "It really is my birthday," he says, and there's the worst kind of smile on his face.

He stalks over to the priest of Granas, scythe raised high, fully prepared to take this man's life. The priest looks on in horror, blindly fumbling for a sword that's fallen too far out of reach. "...You've also become a host to it," he says, realization in his eyes. "How...?"

Xander has nothing more to say, and if someone doesn't step in, the priest won't have anything to say ever again.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

This scene of brazen heretical cruelty is accompanied by a most inappropriate soundtrack -- a serene, calming song played by Riley on his Blood Guitar, a dark, flower-covered instrument grown from the same flowers of their curse. Corrupted magic flows from this melody, sapping at the will and ability of their target to fight back.

He had hoped to put the priest swiftly to sleep so that he wouldn't be able to stir up a fuss at all, but Xander became strangely filled with bloodlust at the sight of the priest, and perhaps some part of Riley doesn't want to deprive him of the satisfaction of a fight with him.

So few things make Xander happy these days, he can't deny him even the terrible ones.

That said, why is Xander so delighted with this particular target? Could it be he reminds him of... ? Riley reddens a little at the thought that even though he is still alive, Xander may be trying to avenge him all the same.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

"Enough."

    She's alone, once she appears on the scene, bladed bared and directed towards the two would-be sacrificers-in-chief. It may well be deliberate: her friends are not unaware of the sort of things that Avril Vent Fleur is willing to tip herselves towards, but that does not mean that it pleases her to involve them.

    Particularly not when the realization of trouble ahead comes so swiftly and apart from any means to call upon additional aid. If there is something which needs to be dealt with, she must find the means within herself.

    "Riley. Xander," she says, speaking their names in turn.

    "You may not proceed any further." Still standing a short distance behind this tableau underway, she takes a step forward.

    "Desist at once. Or I shall do what I must."

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Whatever whims draws Ruth to the greener parts of Zoara, she can't really see these sights without some of the accompanying horrors. There aren't Reapers about the Plains today. Somehow, the sensory slurry of being in their presence here in years past differ. Some days, they are relived. This is not one of those days. It is a better day than usual, for she has maintained her guise of her former self as she perches herself atop a hill of a long-abandoned impromptu battlement she once used for its intended purpose among the Order of Etone.

     She contemplates her rosary around her arm all the while. She remembers the sneer of those priests. 'This is the best way your kind can serve the Light,' with minor permutations thereof... but reality snaps and speaks to her, from a distance much closer than she'd be comfortable admitting. She peeks out from that fortification. A clear sight of Xander and Riley (and less clear but present, the song - her hearing is not as good).

     The former elf subconsciously draws the rifle off her back and only notices a fraction of a second later how much her left shoulder once again reminds her of her physical limitations. The battlement itself proves adequate support for helping hold the weight of it. She looks down the iron sight as her mind crawls about shooting them. She's going to.

     She sets it on the scythe wielder, as others approach. She could end this on the spot. Remove the blight of Valmar.

     Take away Riley's loved one. Hesitation mounts, and Malevolence quietly sups on it as her trigger finger itches to pull. It's almost funny. When had the heartless monster whose guise she wears now ever hesitated to shoot?

     A moment later, she pulls - but the angle is off. Should it strike Xander, it won't be in an immediately fatal place. A deafening bang echoes the early morning air - but only one.

     If that martial priest of Granas has had any dealings with the Etones in the first half of the 490s, that rifle's report is a dead give-away as to who one of his unlikely saviors are today.

     Tension leaves Ruth when she makes the shot, a surge of pain going through her left arm - but relief doesn't come with it.

GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Xander Lovell with Door Knock!
GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Door Knock for 121 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Something falls to the dusty soil of the cross-roads with a wet, vital, fleshy slap. Red leaks into fabric...

Fortunately, the speedertrout (the freshwater fish with reddish flesh!) have been properly dressed out and wrapped in linen for transport and to ward off the dust, so they do not twitch and leave and leap or stare, with dead and soulless eyes, towards the unjust.

Elly van Houten, slightly sun-kissed and incredibly aghast, still in wettish dungarees and with a working top of durable fabric -- even a straw hat and cotton wrap to keep her arms and shoulders from being parbaked in morning sun -- stares ahead.

"Wh... What's...!"

Elly seems simply too shocked at this abrupt and gruesome sight - which she saw, in her case (and perhaps the case of someone else!) when they came out through a little side road that leads down to an old canal meander connected to one of the rivers running through the Shemeber plains and the tall grass gave way to incredible amounts of terror and horror.

Fortunately, someone shoots a gun. Elly flinches, and doesn't immediately respond, but she does start scrambling with the stout rod of lightweight metal she had been carrying over her shoulders. In this case, she's popping off the reel. She is absolutely going to hit someone with it in a moment.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei Fong Wong's last experiences with Granas was to learn that the Ethos were actually a front for Solaris and despite the change of leadership in Granas, Fei isn't really so sure the new Granas is NOT also a front for Solaris. Honestly? Tough to keep track of the conspiracies. If only there was like some sort of floating heads to help keep him appraised of everything. That would clear everything up, Fei thinks. Just take a day, sit in a chair, and let the exposition flow.

But all the same, Fei can't help but think of Billy. Lots of people have gotten suckered, he has to imagine, that are actually otherwise decent folks. He hears the laughing first.

He looks to Elly and gives her a small nod before rushing forward, knowing that she will be ready to clobber someone in a moment. For now, though, Fei uses the fact that he has meaty legs to run forward, jump into the air--

--and flying jump kick Riley in the face while shouting, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" with both feet.

Once he drops down in a crouch, he sees Xander and says, "Oh shit."

A beat.

"Did I wish the wrong person happy birthday?"

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Riley Arwell with Hoten!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: Riley Arwell suffers a terrible blow from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 134 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander's blood grows cold at the sound of Avril's voice. "Then do as you must," he snaps back, "As shall I."

But before he can claim any blood for himself, the shot of a rifle crashes the world into silence. Ruth's bullet bites into his shoulder, blood seeping through into his white shirt. His aim is thrown, scythe blade tearing uselessly at the earth. Even with the priest's shock, his eyes cast in Ruth's direction in disbelief (and it's uncertain whether he even manages to spot her, but he knows), he still manages plenty of time to scramble from Xander's rage.

And Xander, alas, is too slow on his next swing to catch him. "No!" His jaw clenches, fangs exposed, but he drops his weapon in favor of cradling his wounded shoulder for a moment. The scythe breaks into vines and slithers into the earth.

With a heavy exhale, he huffs out another mirthless bark of a laugh. "Well," he starts, turning to the others. "It would be hypocritical for me to complain about you all defending a murderer, I suppose. Mm, but that's not what you call it when it's for your greater good, is it?!"

Ignoring his wound, he dives for Avril. The scythe returns to him, lurching from the ground to weave together and take shape as he makes to whirl into her with the spinning blade. The momentum carries him, and he releases the scythe to dismiss it again, dagger suddenly in hand as he tries to sink the blade into Elly's side.

"But if you're volunteering to take his place, then fine, come on!"

GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Death Spiral!
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Bloodlust!
GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Xander Lovell's Death Spiral for 63 hit points!
GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Xander Lovell's Bloodlust for 122 hit points!
GS: Xander Lovell drains Elhaym van Houten! Xander Lovell gains 61 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Avril appears, giving her warning, and Riley feels panic rising. "Just do it--do it now!!" If he doesn't, they'll lose the chance to remove the thorns that have been tormenting Xander... lose more time and get caught in another downward spiral again...

But then --BANG!

"Xander!!" The notes of Riley's song come to an abrupt stop as he searches for the direction the shot came from. ...there! That battlement on the hill...?

He moves his guitar to his back and draws his bow, loosing an arrow toward their distant assailant. He's not sure of the exact location of the sniper, and so he lets Valmar guide his arrow -- it pulses with dark power, seeking her lifeforce.

No sooner has the arrow flown than he receives a BIRTHDAY KICK -- which knocks him from his feet with a whump as a terrible ache rises from his jaw.

"Yes!! You got the wrong person!!" he sputters. "But if that's your idea of a gift, don't bother Xander with it!"

He scans around to see how things have changed since they were attacked. The priest is already getting away -- but -- his eyes fall on Elly... is that a new bystander coming toward them? That could be what they need... but Xander's on it!

Better deal with what's in front of him, then. As he pushes to his feet, he sweeps a hand up with his knife in a slicing arc toward Fei, the blade coated with a poison intended to numb the extremities and cloud the mind.

GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Ruth Pauling with Homing Arrow!
GS: Riley Arwell spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Poisoned Knife Bite!
GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
GS: Ruth Pauling takes a glancing hit from Riley Arwell's Homing Arrow for 57 hit points!
GS: Ruth Pauling activates Evade bonus and Power Burst!
GS: CRITICAL! Fei Fong Wong solidly guards Riley Arwell's Poisoned Knife Bite for 77 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "...I see. Then so be it," Avril tells Xander, narrowing her eyes. Perhaps there can be no negotiation when it will be a life for a life-- but it is her time with the others that has her make the attempt, regardless.

    But a bullet takes Xander's shoulder before Avril has even a change to close the distance between her and the two of them. "--Who?"

    Not Rebecca, that is certain -- that was not the bullet of a pistol. In fact, it seemed rather more like...

    And this buys the man all the time he needs to make good on his escape attempt.

    Someone else is here. This Avril knows.
    She is moments short of becoming less alone than she'd thought.

    "...Elly?"

    Where there is Elly, there is bound to be Fei. In fact--

    "Fei!"

    There he is.

    "...Be as it may." Avril turns her attention towards Xander once again, and speaks in reference to the priest, "I shall not let you attempt this. Not here, and not now."

    He's for her in the next eyeblink, and she for him, only rolling her body away mere seconds before his weapon's blade would connect. Scythe meets sword; sparks spray and scatter for the split-second of their clash. But he is soon away from her and bounding towards Elly.

    She lets him go, making her own decisions in the heat of this moment, instead rushing for his partner, her blade flashing the once as she approaches with a single stabbing thrust.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Riley Arwell with Spirit Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Riley Arwell partially guards Avril Vent Fleur's Spirit Saber for 101 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    'No!' Xander's exclamation feels like it rings louder beyond volume alongside Riley's insistence something is done now, to the Zoaran sharpshooter. She fails to stifle a chortle (which is only coincidentally timed with the shout of HAPPY BIRTHDAY), as the ache in her left arm is buoyed by the conflicting feelings. She can only just barely make out Xander's complaints about 'defending a murderer' and 'greater good.'

     An arrow loosens. The former elf's eyes have yet to fail her, and she ducks behind that fortification. There is a hard ping as the arrow is deflected off of it, upwards. That should be the end of that, but there is a power that seeks. A power that hungers, for something more. It wants what's right there, and Valmar guides that arrow back down.

     It fails to embed in the sniper's body, but its descending angle tears across her right forearm in a large gash that sees crimson seep. Blood droplets follow gravity down towards where the arrowhead rests within the ground. For a moment, Ruth's eyes are transfixed watching the bloodflow seem to pull itself almost unnaturally towards that arrow, and something stirs. She picks that cursed arrow up off the ground, and blackish-purple energies envelop her arm in protest.

     It's funny, isn't it, she reflects. But Granas hasn't struck me down for everything. Even from this far, she can taste it in the air. The anguish, the fear... eyes wetting, she clenches her fist and lets herself smile against it.

     That smile now has fangs.

     Some moments later, as Avril starts to lock weapons with Riley, there is a hissing screech from above, belonging to a large silhouette that has four horns, one wing (to their right)... that is rapidly leaping straight down the distance holding some kind of polearm, diving straight down just shy of Xander's position.

     The ground shakes under the force of the Hellionized Ruth striking the earth, and no sooner later does the naginata-shaped bayonet blade cut against the ground underneath as she swings up against them, eyes wide with a shining fell violet. Purplish blood dribbles freely from her right forearm, where she was struck, faintly nourishing whatever fell flowers may yet germinate about where she now stands.

     "Must this keep going...?" Her voice is far more hushed in comparison to excitable movements.

GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Xander Lovell with Scarring Blow!
GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly stares at Xander, shocked and appalled and dismayed and frightened and -- and many things, none of them good, whirl through her mind. Her eyes threaten to water for a moment but he's coming too quickly. Elly is possibly about to get killed by this scythe.

BUT

While Elly's heart is rent, and her mind is confused, her body and nerves are well trained, and it doesn't hurt that Xander is using some kind of a weapon that is not, perhaps, the most effiicent at murder compared with such all time hits as 'the spear,' 'the gun' and several not yet current on Filgaia. Elly has a staff -- and she spins round, the blade catching and skidding up along the metal with a tang-KTTTIING and cutting a gash into her arm.

At which point, still more or less on autopilot, she twists forwards to try and smash it against Xander's face or shoulders!

THEN she starts talking.

"Run!!!!"

It's more like 'shouting'.

GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 1 Combo on Interrupt!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xander Lovell with Screamer!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from Ruth Pauling's Scarring Blow for 116 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xander Lovell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Misery inflicts a random effect! Poison applied to Xander Lovell!
GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer!
GS: Xander Lovell's Disrupt Ward prevents an effect!
GS: CRITICAL! Xander Lovell takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Screamer for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xander Lovell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer!
GS: Xander Lovell has lost 2 Combo from Interrupt!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"He's a murderer?? Why would you expect us to just KNOW that?? Who did he murder? I swear if he's someone really mad about his victim liking someone else I'm gonna riot!" He pauses and adds, "And do you..just assume people who try to stop a murder being in it for the 'greater good'? Most people would try to stop a murder, or at least get help, if they saw it in front of them I should think!"

AT first he thinks the 'Run!!' is for him. He glances over and Riley sinks a poisoned dagger in his shoulder in the process. His mind dizzies and he stumbles, pulling the blade out and tossing it aside. He may have a high CON modifier but it's pretty clear the poison is having SOME effect by the way he brings his hand to his forehead.

"Hey Avril," He says. "You doing okay? It's good to see--"

He throws up to the side.

He pants for breath. "Good to see you."

He rears back his hand and punches a fireball at Riley, though it's less a HADOUKEN and more like a miniature explosion going off around his fist.

"Also I mean, I bet I murdered more people than you guys did so I guess there's not much point to me playing the moral high ground card even if I don't remember the murders--"

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Riley Arwell with Kakei!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong takes 30 damage from Poison!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: Riley Arwell takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Kakei for 142 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

It's with some delay that Xander realizes there are others who have found Riley. "Riley!" he calls out, but it's too little, too late. It would have been anyway. Never fast enough. Never strong enough.

"Birthdays are canceled!" he shouts, like that's going to help matters. "Who knows who he actually succeeded with, but he was on board with taking life of an innocent man and call it righteous...!" He fails to specify who that man was because one knows each other's names right now, he thinks, except for the fact that apparently they all know each other's names. Of course they do. Xander hates everything.

With his blade deflected by Elly's weapon, Xander's beginning to feel that dread again: she's not going to be an easy target. And why would she be? She ran toward them, not away. That staff of hers misses his head, but hits his wounded shoulder and sends him staggering from the pain. There's a throbbing in his skull and he growls, barely bale to think straight, and in retaliation he thrashes with his scythe, full momentum thrown into it to sweep its blade across her.

"Hey! Your fight is with me!" Xander demands as Avril makes her attempt at Riley instead, but before he can do anything about that, Ruth descends upon him. Xander is tossed aside in the collision, tumbling violently.

He may not have her horns or her wings, but if he considers himself as much a monster, then he's trying to prove it now. Xander launches at her with no respite from the earth shattering strike, fangs bared. He grips onto the bullet wound she gave him, ripping further into it and flicking it onto the ground at her feet. Blossoming, thorned vines spring from the earth, reaching to grab hold of her. They won't be difficult to escape from, but they rake with bloodletting serration.

"It must and it will."

GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Hellbent!
GS: Xander Lovell enters a Counter stance!
GS: Xander Lovell spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Ruth Pauling with Rosaceae!
GS: Xander Lovell takes 22 damage from Poison!
GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action.
GS: Ruth Pauling partially guards Xander Lovell's Rosaceae for 174 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Ruth Pauling!
GS: Ruth Pauling activates Sufferer!
GS: Strain! Xander Lovell takes 84 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"Please don't pick apart all of Xander's statements, he's already having a really difficult birthday," Riley says to Fei. "It's really a long and complicated story, but the thing is he's suffering from a deadly curse and we could turn it all around if you kind folks could stand aside and let us make one quick, tiny little blood sacrifice..."

Although Riley speaks as though Xander's the only one cursed, he's the one with visible flowers growing from his body at the moment--a small thorny tendril with red blossoms growing at one side of his neck.

Xander is going on about the clergy being willing to sacrifice innocents... and he isn't wrong, but Riley gives a small cough, reddening. Well, he was innocent once.

Avril's blade catches him by surprise as she and Xander suddenly break away from one another. He gives a startled vocalization of pain and backs up, blood streaming down from a puncture in his torso. His hand reaches out searchingly in front of him, and the earth stirs as his cursed polearm rises up to meet it -- the Shovel of Valmar. He gives a swing towards Avril, the dark ki coming off the weapon taking on a ghoulish shape with a face and grasping hands that pulls at her lifeforce.

He sees a monster descend from the skies toward Xander; he doesn't recognize this figure, having only recently gained Resonance. "What the--!?" he says. Why are even demonic entities jumping in to stop them? Is the whole world determined to right any little wrong, as long as they're the ones causing it?

Meanwhile, Fei is saying all kinds of strange things...

I bet I murdered more people than you guys did...

"You what?" says Riley. "Are you entangled with evil forces, too? Maybe we shouldn't fight!" A fiery explosion emerging from Fei's fist gives another reason he would rather not fight the man. Riley raises his shovel in an attempt to shield himself, but is still blasted backwards, coughing. He swings the shovel again, at Fei, its hungry aura pulling at his strength along with the impact of weight and force from the weapon itself.

GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Herald of the Grave!
GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Brush with Death!
GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
GS: Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's Hellbent for 106 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Elhaym van Houten gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur suffers a terrible blow from Riley Arwell's Herald of the Grave for 143 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Delay applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur activates Arcane Font!
GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Riley Arwell's Brush with Death for 145 hit points!
GS: Break applied to Fei Fong Wong!
GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Arcane Font and Sufferer!
GS: Fei Fong Wong enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "It has been some time," Avril tells Fei, before things get even more chaotic than they had been. "You and Elly appear to be well."

    She has but a moment to catch a glimpse of Ruth, en route. "You are--"

    And then there is no time for any of that. She dives after Riley now, coming at him with her blade.

    'He was on board with taking the life of an innocent man...'

    "He is not here now," Avril tells Xander, tone glacial. "You and Riley alone remain."
    This appears to be as far as she will consider things -- at least for now.

    "My fight is with the two of you," she corrects, attention on Riley as he swings for her with his--

    Metal resounds as her blade meets his shovel.

    But.

    Her eyes go wide in shock as dark energy peels free from the shovel's surface, reaching out with one long-fingered hand to grasp her. The boney digits clutch tightly at her shoulder, and in that moment, Avril can scarce draw a breath, gazing into the face that manifests in that haze.

    It feels like it takes minutes. It lasts but a few seconds. She pulls away abruptly enough that she stumbles, landing hard on the ground below her. "You--"

    She rises quickly, drawing out that Medium she so often bears; the metallic disc glints in the light. "Lucadia," Avril intones, closing her eyes as breeze and spray waft about her. Curling waves of light -- an ocean of photons -- wrap themselves about her and bear her aloft, however fleetingly, before vanishing altogther. She again levels her sword at Xander, but does not make a single move towards him just yet.

    "You may depart, if you choose," she tells him. "I shall not give chase."

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Sea of Crises!
GS: Delay expired!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur heals Avril Vent Fleur! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
GS: Hyper applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
GS: Quick applied to Avril Vent Fleur!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Why are birthdays cancelled?!" Elly blurts out in dismay and horror! She is unsure what Fei is saying and has perhaps not heard it clearly, even if the rush of oncoming battle is starting to catch up with her.

They're menacing this Priest. Check. Lots of people love to kill and bully priests! It's a hobby for all ages! Elly has started to get sympathy for many of them, although her exposure to 'Father' Billy is a large part of this. And Billy may not be typical.

Elly sees Ruth - who is a rather stand-out figure - she can't really take in everthing with her at a glance, instead bringing her staff up again. There is not so much a parry as a partial blockage, enough to turn what would have been a raking thrust into a sudden spinning and hurling-into-the-dirt of Elly van Houten, even as vines rip from the Earth towards--

The other party. Ruth?

"-- Stop!!!" Elly squeals out towards Xander and while she would LIKE it to be courageous it comes out as more of an imploring squeak. What is a little less meek and mild is the sudden eruption of a ring of fire, aiming to surround Xander in a sudden column of it followed by a waist-high licking of artificial but, like, extremely real yellow-orange flame. Perhaps the heat will stun him.

"No - no one murder anyone!"

GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Xander Lovell with Thermo Boundary!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Is it really his birthday?" FEi asks of Riley though, honestly, he does understand that it can be tough having your statements picked apart a lot by a random dogooder, the role of which Fei seems to have found himself in today. It's at least better than 'guy who thinks he was supposed to jump into magma because that's what the guy giving the trial said which turned out to be a TOTAL LIE AFTER ALL YVAIN. He is never going to bring this up.

"Well I mean it's not 'me me' but, like, I saw Elru and hooboy and that was a me."

Why is he sharing this, Fei wonders. Is it because Riley is just so friendly even as he's trying to murder Fei with a shovel.

Fei, thinking fondly of Dean, can't get otu of the way as the shovel slams into her skull. Head ringing, Fei brings a hand to his bleeding forehead.

"So yeah I guess I am though I think it's more like... what's a word for someone who likes people but doesn't want to be seen as having feelings I guess? And would hurt people instead of letting people in emotionally?"

He looks to Xander in case he knows. Or is an example.

Nevertheless, Fei backpedals a bit and adds, "Yeah I guess a guy trying to hurt innocent people is pretty bad but he doesn't really seem in condition to do a murder NOW."

He starts channeling the DARK chi as he goes in for SHORYUKEN towards Riley's chin.

He always wanted to try this move. But honestly it looks pretty silly.

"Maybe we can all not do murders today." Fei says. "Is the point I'm trying toget at. Not greatly, I guess, but. Hi."

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Riley Arwell with Infinite Darkness Ether Channel!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has entered Avenger Stance!
GS: Fei Fong Wong takes 39 damage from Poison!
GS: Poison expired!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    Owing to relatively close proximity to one another, the Hellion hearing Elly shout 'run!!!!' sees her break whatever modicum of eye contact she might have mustered in the moment. It's not directed to her, but it hits that note. That idea that she's such a monster that even a direct servant of Valmar might be told to run from her, for their sake... it feels like a thing even if not intended to be inferred.

     It's enough to just miss the ghastly sight of Xander reaching into his very wound that she raises the rifle incorrectly in the direction of a higher-angled attack that does not exist. She doesn't realize the true nature of what Xander did until it's far too late.

     Riley will be able to recognize - once there's a moment to do so - that the oddball demonic entity is dressed exactly like an elven woman who pops up every so often. The shape of her ears are the same, even!

     Vines feed on the blood she has already let from the ground, surging up and reaching around her right forearm. The Granasian rosary does not protect from the bite of Valmar's figurative fangs currently in the form of literal brambles and thorns as they pierce and drink from toughened stone-like flesh. For a moment - a glorious moment - Xander has her rooted to both this and his spoken resignation.

     'Also, I mean, I bet I murdered more people than you guys did,' Fei goes on (truthfully), and Ruth's one wing positions itself in front of her as she looks down towards what beads and baubles of the rosary can be seen above the vines currently feasting on her arm.

     'You may depart, if you choose,' Avril's voice can be heard trying to give them a choice. Could she? She's seen the concern and love the two have for one another... for those of Valmar. What does that say about...

     Elly's scream to stop sees tension on her face, even not directed at her, as she fights to yank herself free of the vines. It's not that difficult. She overcompensates for it, barreling forward past Xander and threatening to throw her entire bulk, wing-first, towards Riley as she stops in a kneel and flicks her wing to re-open her view of the world to her.

     Her tongue flicks.

     "It never really stops, does it."

GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Riley Arwell with Hide Our Faces!
GS: Ruth Pauling has entered Stoic Stance!
GS: Ruth Pauling gains 1 Combo from she Cautious!
GS: Ruth Pauling takes 27 damage from Poison!
GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks Elhaym van Houten with Blood for Blood!
GS: Xander Lovell suffers a terrible blow from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Boundary for 109 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xander Lovell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle applied to Xander Lovell!
GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer!
GS: Healthy! For entering Condition Green, Xander Lovell receives 100 temporary hit points.
GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Riley Arwell suffers a terrible blow from Fei Fong Wong's Infinite Darkness Ether Channel for 150 hit points!
GS: Riley Arwell partially guards Ruth Pauling's Hide Our Faces for 67 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Ruth Pauling!
GS: Riley Arwell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander is not here to stop.

But Elly's flames engulf him, and he doesn't know it's artificial, because it burns all the same, lashing at him with entangling flames that slow his every move from the burns they leave. Yet he barrels through it, making a counter swing at Elly all the same. Whatever happens with that, he's off balance, staggering, trying to reclaim his sense of position.

Fei looks at him, and Xander looks back. "What--? I don't like people!" he sputters, face red, and this wordless comment is enough for him to leap up Xander's aggro table, apparently, because the scythe grows back from the ground like a horrible weed as he charges.

"FINE, RECAP FOR EVERYONE," Xander shouts somewhere in the battle with all this back and forth. "Cursed by Valmar to kill or be killed."

Weaving toward Fei, he makes a quick, rising strike that tears through the ground and flips him back. "So, of course I dragged him to the church, and of course they were willing to purify him. And of course the process would kill him, so of course they come at his while we're trying to run away."

Scythe poised high, Xander follows up his strike with a brutal one over head, trying to treat him as a piece of wheat before hurling it back into the ground like he's mad at it. He is! It's a symbol of this stupid curse! "But whatever! That's not murder. Just a necessary tragedy. An acceptable loss. So we murder instead, and, fine, we probably deserve it now. Basically monsters, blah blah blah, can we all get on with it?!"

'It' being combat, evidently. Which he never stopped within all his expositing anyway, Xander.

"But if I have to kill someone, I'd prefer it to be the guy who was willing to do it to us first. That doesn't happen to me a lot."

Avril gives Xander a choice, and he looks back at her, eye like steel. "I'm not giving up," he growls, and it's the wrong answer. Because he's not going to win this. They're outnumbered. They should walk away. But it's not an answer to her in this moment, it's an answer to everything, and he pours that misguided conviction outward as he lunges for her with nothing but a knife. Two knives, one trying to catch and move her blade aside so he can drive the other to pierce into her.

GS: Xander Lovell has activated a Force Action!
GS: Xander Lovell spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Fei Fong Wong with As You Sow...!
GS: Xander Lovell has launched an attack Link!
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Fei Fong Wong with So Shall You Reap!
GS: Xander Lovell enters a Counter stance!
GS: Xander Lovell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xander Lovell has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Enduring Will!
GS: Recover! Poison removed from Xander Lovell!
GS: Xander Lovell has completed his action.
GS: Fei Fong Wong suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's As You Sow... for 161 hit points!
GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer!
GS: Strain! Xander Lovell takes 61 damage!
GS: Fei Fong Wong partially guards Xander Lovell's So Shall You Reap for 141 hit points!
GS: Fei Fong Wong activates Sufferer!
GS: Strain! Xander Lovell takes 54 damage!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a solid hit from Xander Lovell's Enduring Will for 330 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Xander Lovell drains Avril Vent Fleur! Xander Lovell gains 100 temporary hit points!
GS: Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood for 101 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

A SHORYUKEN lifts Riley off his feet and sends him flying into the air, and the demoness barrels into him with her wing. Riley is sent rolling along the ground, dazed. He pushes to his feet, lunging at her with his shovel in a way that uses the digging implement as a blade. Getting a better look at her, though... "Are you Miss Four Shots??"

Xander tries to RECAP their situation, and Riley startles for a moment, as some of the recap is unexpectedly new information to him. "Wait, was that really one of the priests we escaped from back then??" No wonder Xander was happy--they've never gotten to kill anyone who actually wronged them, before.

Riley, too, is a little frustrated too with the 'let's all be reasonable and just leave' talk. "We're not doing this for revenge or justice-- we need to do it! Xander is acting strong but he's hurting badly, and it's only going to get worse the longer we take to make a sacrifice..." Riley, don't go after Xander's dignity in the middle of a battle!

Honestly, maybe it would be wiser at this point if they just take the offer to escape and cut their losses? But Xander's pain won't leave him until they can take a life.

What are their chances of managing to kill one of the people they're fighting now? Can Riley even bring himself to try?

Riley doesn't want to kill Avril... and whoever this guy is who keeps smashing up Riley's face is bantering with him like they could be friends despite it all, and that makes him harder to kill...

And Ruth was kind to Xander when she met him by chance that one time...

That leaves one person on the battlefield he can put his all into trying to kill before he can think of a reason not to.

That same person engulfs Xander in flames, and panic wells up.

"Xander!!" He can do this... just end it while he's angry, don't worry about who she is!

Riley slams his shovel down into the earth, and lines of light race along the ground towards Elly. A latticework of vines grow up all around her, taking shape into a coffin made of thorny vines. The 'lid' slams shut, bringing ragged barbs toward her on the inside, and it begins to burrow down into the ground.

GS: Riley Arwell spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Riley Arwell has attacked Ruth Pauling with Carve You Up!
GS: Riley Arwell has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Riley Arwell spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Riley Arwell has attacked Elhaym van Houten with To Hell with You!
GS: Riley Arwell has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Riley Arwell has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Ruth Pauling solidly guards Riley Arwell's Carve You Up for 64 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ruth Pauling gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Poison applied to Ruth Pauling!
GS: Ruth Pauling activates Power Burst and Sufferer!
GS: Ruth Pauling enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: CRITICAL! Elhaym van Houten suffers a terrible blow from Riley Arwell's To Hell with You for 292 hit points!
GS: Poison applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Elhaym van Houten activates Sufferer!
GS: Riley Arwell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Strain! Riley Arwell takes 37 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Xander explains.

    Because they were cursed. Because of course, the thing they opted to do was visit the church. Because the church had decided that the answer to their particular predicament was--

    "Then this is revenge." Avril's expression is utterly impassive. "Is it not?"

    But Xander may not be in a negotiating sort of mood, precisely. Rather instead--

    "...No, of course you are not. You told us this before. I understand, but neither can I permit it." Dean might argue that there must be some other way, another solution. But is there one? Is there another path that lies open for these two other than the two forks in the road ahead?

    Either they restore Valmar, or they die. One of these cannot be allowed.

    But he comes at her quickly.
    She sees one knife. She should have seen the other.

    "Ah--!" It's less scream, more gasp. The knife sinks into her and when she staggers away, one hand is pressed against a crimson stain.

    "So... so be it," she says, and where there had been a blade, there is one no longer. Hand clutching her side, she rushes for Xander in spite of her wound, her index finger depressing Absolute Zero's trigger.

    There is light. It moves like a living thing, the lash trailing from her ARM's hilt. Once, twice.

    Three times in total, she strikes at him with that brilliant, blinding beam.

    The Ice Queen had built her weapon of choice with particular surprises.

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has activated a Force Action!
GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip!
GS: MYSTIC ARTE! Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Xander Lovell with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Xander recaps. Kill or be killed!

Elly feels a whirl of thoughts. Summarized: 'does it have to be people? does it have to be priests?? can it be fixed??? can you talk to the cops????' But these thoughts do not have much time to continue because Xander reveals-- they were attacked by that priest...

Thankfully, Riley spares her this awkwardness by condemning her to a thorn-wracked green Hell of flesh-ripping horror as she is suddenly and comprehensively engulfed in the agonizing darkness of a sort of wooden Maiden. She is curling up to protect herself even as it happens --

Elly disappears from sight.

Then the vines start to turn sort of a bright green?

No, a blue. Is that smoke? Does that smell like wooden forest-fire smoke to anyone else?

There is a brief peek of flame as the horrid trap is ripped asunder, Elly van Houten visibly shrouded by a paradoxical sheath of flame so hot that it is blue instead of red which she immediately pivots around, hurling forwards -- channelling? It's not clear -- it goes towards Riley, either way, the scintillating blue fire 'cooling' towards green-yellow-orange-red as it goes. There's a huge noise, like gentle thunder, from the heat displacement of the air; some of the grass just up and dies, the water in the cells vaporized.

Afterwards she lands on hands and knees, bleeding from a great many places. None of them, thankfully, seem disabling. It's still quite a bit, especially from the nicks on the scalp.

GS: Elhaym van Houten spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Riley Arwell with Thermo Incinerate!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Elhaym van Houten takes 30 damage from Poison!
GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
GS: Riley Arwell solidly guards Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Incinerate for 101 hit points!
GS: Mute applied to Riley Arwell!
GS: Hyper applied to Elhaym van Houten!
GS: Riley Arwell activates Arcane Font and Sufferer! Riley Arwell enters Critical health and gains 25 FP!
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    There is an echoing clash of forces as the lunging shovel is met with the shaft of her rifle. Two deeply cursed weapons - one with Malevolence, the other with Valmar - meet in opposition where it seems the larger figure is the one who gives more ground as the two combatants disengage. Taloned feet rake against the blood-soaked ground, her head bowed but failing to avert her gaze from Riley's own when he asks the question.

     'Are you Miss Four Shots?' The question drains so much of the buzzing in her mind back into her chest, as the blackish-purple cloud of negative emotions briefly intensifies. It's a question she doesn't want to answer even when it is so simple and impossible to deny. She never in fact gets around to answering Riley properly!

     Her tail keeps coiled tightly around the rifle, as if to assert inseperability from the blood-soaked history. It's something of modern myth, penned by blades of yellow (the common distinguishing coloring agent for the bullets it uses) and red (the sly way its manufacturer would refer to the bayonet blade), while Xander gives the clear-cut run-down to reiterate their situation. It stings to think about.

     Ruth can only laugh. Also cry! At the same time. Riley talks about how Xander's hurting as badly he does. She let it happen. She could've ended it right there, and she didn't. She drew it out.

     "I'm sorry." She whispers. "You're hurting. You're angry. You're afraid." Riley strikes the ground, and she tenses as the lines of light race... past her! Towards Elly. That line went between her feet. Could she have stopped it? A terrible glow happens behind her, something burning.

     It is joined by the sudden onset of a heavy, humid mist that tends to come with heavy rainstorms... on a clear, beautiful early morning. It's not a natural storm. Each raindrop, a tiny little needle of manifested discordant sorrow for Riley as she kneels in penitence.

     They're with Valmar, by her faith irreconcilable evil. They care for one another as loving partners. It's difficult for her to accept both, alongside another unspoken, repressed vector that feeds the rain.

     "We can't stop being who we are... can we."

GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ruth Pauling has attacked Riley Arwell with Inconsolable Heavens!
GS: Ruth Pauling enters a Counter stance!
GS: Ruth Pauling has entered  Stance!
GS: Ruth Pauling gains 1 Combo from she Cautious!
GS: Ruth Pauling takes 22 damage from Poison!
GS: Ruth Pauling has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Riley Arwell solidly guards Ruth Pauling's Inconsolable Heavens for 80 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover applied to Ruth Pauling!
GS: Riley Arwell activates Arcane Font and Sufferer!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Kill or be killed....

No! There's a pacifist run! Also like lots of runs where maybe you kill some people but not all of them and--

Fei Fong Wong is not used to actual teamwork from his opponents. It's sad but true. The Metal Demons usually kinda just fought 'an entire room of drifters' and Yevon usually was more about throwing bodies at a problem, but like actual change ups? This might be the first time in at least a year that they kinda thought to do that.

"Whaaaaa?" Fei says regarding NEEDING to make a sacrifice. "What like a vampire?" He pauses. "I mean not a real vampire, real vampires don't do that, but like fake dime novel vampires--"

Is...

Riley's shovel prowess might be more potent than Dean's, he thinks.

Why is the psycho murderer who needs to murder people to survive apparently blushing at him. That humanizes him! He doesn't like it when people he's fighting are humanized because then he feels bad about hitting them in the face, even if they literally NEED to murder.

"Maybe it's an addiction and you can sort of taper off the murders gradually so you don't need to murder anymore? Like cigarettes?" Fei says helplessly. "Like maybe it's bad because it's...murder withdrawal? Maybe you can just beat someone up and then kinda settle on giving people papercuts, and then eventaully just get off violence altogether..."

Fei brings his arms up to block the rising strike. His arms get torn up by the scythe and he thinks, like, wow, a scythe. It's a pretty distant thought.

He is then clobbered back down, face first into the floor.

He groans. "Okay, well, if it was about justice I'd offer to help destroy the Church I guess technically I've got experience destroying churches... But if you just gotta murder people I guess destroying a church isn't gonna actually help. ACtually, not destroying the Granas church is the most logical thing to do so they keep sending people after you so you don't hurt actual innocent ...people..."

He wrinkles his nose. Something tells him the correct answer heere isn't 'let them murder this guy'. That just feels wrong. Like, emotionally speaking.

"How about like cows. Maybe downgrade to cows. Why would it have to be humans."

But he keeps fighting all the same, twisting around and turning on Xander by bringing his hand back and throwing a perectly balanced palm strike for his chest.

"Uhhhhhhh."

Which Fei is doing despite clearly not being like, emotionally monk master chill or anything like that.

GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Xander Lovell with Yin Yang Strike!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Break expired!
GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
GS: Riley Arwell used Defend! He takes Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc attack on Xander Lovell on himself!
GS: Riley Arwell suffers a terrible blow from Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc for 179 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Riley Arwell gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Break and Delay applied to Riley Arwell!
GS: Riley Arwell activates Sufferer!
GS: Riley Arwell has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
GS: COUNTER! Xander Lovell counterattacks Fei Fong Wong with Blood for Blood!
GS: CRITICAL! Xander Lovell takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Yin Yang Strike for 237 hit points!
GS: Xander Lovell activates Sufferer!
GS: Xander Lovell enters CONDITION GREEN!!
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Recaps do leave out some critical information, as Elly rightfully experiences, and if only Xander knew those thoughts to say yes, no, no, why. Xander's not the most helpful when he's wound up and shouting.

Xander heaves for breath after his last round of attacks. He's pushing himself beyond what his body's capable of, and it's not dark power that does it. But nor can he escape that dark power lurks inside of him, eating away at his soul as always.

"They don't need that much information!" he snaps at Riley.

Is it revenge? "Sure, add it to the list." Of everything he's done wrong, and done to deserve what he gets. He does not care. He is, indeed, not in any kind of mood to negotiate or argue.

Fei talks about murderer withdraw and he gestures at Riley vaguely. "We tried that once until he was choking on his own blood and nearly suffocated in his sleep, so no thank you." Nobody's dignity gets to survive tonight. Then he bristles. "Yes it has to be humans! If it could be animals, we wouldn't be having this conversation! ..... THIS ISN'T A CONVERSATION!"

Then why are you conversing.

Fire. Xander wasn't worried so much when it was all over him, but now it's smoking and burning over at Riley's coffin and the hair on the back of Xander's neck stands on end. "Riley!" Not good. Not now. It's followed by Ruth's cleansing torrent of rain, and before Xander has time to be confused about that, to froth and gnash about hurting, Fei's palm strike hitting him directly in the chest and stealing all the air from his lungs. All he can do is flail his knives around before they both fall and hit the ground somewhere. (It's fine, he has more.)

He gasps, coughing, trying to see straight so he can face his opponents. Avril is taking aim, and Xander sets his jaw, steeling himself for the blow he all but asked for, fully intent to endure it and push through to continue the fight, no matter how it might tear him apart --

GS: Ruth Pauling used Defend! She takes Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood attack on Fei Fong Wong on herself!
GS: Ruth Pauling has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ruth Pauling solidly guards Xander Lovell's Blood for Blood for 71 hit points!
GS: Ruth Pauling activates Guard bonus and Sufferer!
GS: Ruth Pauling has gained 1 Combo!
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"Yes, exactly. We're like fake dime novel vampires," Riley says.

There are some attempts to negotiate them down from murder, like it's Xander and Riley who get to decide how to satisfy the curse and not the evil thing that's infested their souls.

"Do we seem so crazy to you that we'd casually kill human beings without checking if it could just be animals?? --Don't answer that!" Riley knows he comes off as crazy to people in fights like these, nicely asking them to die so the two of them can live. But it's the situation that's crazy. Isn't it?

Riley is given a taste of his own medicine when Xander shares an anecdote about the time he got thorns in his throat. Hmm, maybe he understands a little why Xander doesn't like these things aired in public, but on the other hand it's nice to hear the caring in how Xander retells it...

Things get dire, and Riley goes in for a kill... but Elly burns free from her thorny coffin, and turns the blaze that saved her on Riley. He shields his face and head as this burning conflagration fires into him, searing exposed skin.

Ruth meets their predicament not with negotiation or fiery retribution but with sorrowful understanding. But that sorrow rains down in physical form, in raindrops that pierce through him with pain.

Riley sways on his feet.

We can't stop being who we are... can we.

"No, it's too late. And there was never a way out, even before we started killing."

There's a flicker of guilt in his expression, then, that says he knows he's not being entirely truthful. There was a way out. The priests' way out. Why didn't he just take it, back then? He meant to. He was trying to work up the courage when Xander hit him with the feelings he'd had all along, and then Riley... ... ... made some bad choices. And soon they were over the precipice of the worst things the curse could have possibly made them do, and there was no going back.

Xander refuses Avril's invitation to back down, and Avril rushes for him, bringing forth a brilliant lash of light. Riley races to intervene, tackling Xander to the ground and shielding him with his body. The pain of the impact seems to turn everything white, and when his vision comes back to him, everything is hazy and swimming, the world dimming in and out. His limbs ache and are shaking, and he can barely keep his vision in focus. Is that it? After failing to stop all this suffering, could he be dying right now? Maybe it's as good a time as any.

"Xander..." he says, with a breaking voice, "I know I wrecked everything. What I did was unforgivable, but...Thank you for pretending with me... for letting me pretend you loved me anyway." These parting words said, he collapses.

He isn't dead, not even close to it. Neither of them has been counting, but this is probably at least the fifth time he's given Xander some sort of 'dying words,' just in case.

<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.

    There's that shared moment between Riley and herself. Neither of them really can stop. It's too late, Riley says. Her tongue flicks anew, and sharply turns in Xander's direction as he screams about whether it's a conversation... and the pained yell as to what's about to happen to Riley (and does). With alarming alacrity...

     Ruth's large figure moves from the growing fog of rain. It's startling enough before the negative emotions permeate the air at toxic levels about her. Guilt. Regret. Shame. Despair. By the time Xander's flailing comes to cease, the dropped knives are coated in blood that is of a very purple color rather than red.

     "There were some," Ruth speaks to Fei though her back is turned, fresh wounds from her right shoulder, abdomen, and leg - going by where the gashes cut through heavy cloth, "who were told the only way they could serve the Light would be to kill... and no other."

     Her eyes open to bear down upon the struggling Xander, the violet lights piercing through the mossy green strands of hair that could never obscure that gaze. "The eyes of those Reapers... they look so much like yours." Is it dehumanizing, or humanizing given specific truths known to the other Drifters now? Her hands tense around the shaft of the rifle she carries, as the very tip of that lengthy tail - terminating in a hollow shape of a heart with barbs - tries to (improbably, given size) poke its way through the fingerguard that necessitates a conscious effort of her left hand to shield it from doing so. (It's for the best, even if the current orientation of the rifle might take out Xander's ankle if it goes off, the recoil to the wielder would be... unpleasant, current bracing by her tail be damned.)

     She stops talking as Riley gives his apology. Tension coils about her... and then she has to dedicate her entire hand to holding her tail, stand up straighter, and cross a leg back.

     "You're not pretending." She tells Xander. It would be easy for her, as easy as breathing, as the rain continues along in its disquieting ambience. The mock screams that could happen feel as real as the ones she just witnessed. Her tail's struggles betray a desire to shoot. She doesn't want them to suffer, she could shoot them. She doesn't want them to suffer, she shouldn't shoot them.

     "That's your loved one." She breaks eye contact again, as is her habit, and then abruptly turns her gaze somewhere away from her hands as though she doesn't want to look at them either.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander's thrown to the ground by what is decidedly not Avril's attack, but Riley diving at him and throwing them both to the ground. Which has Xander's anger flaring at the realization. "Riley!" he snarls, but all of the hostility drains out of him, leaving him cold when the tackle isn't enough to get either of them out of the way. He feels the impact through Riley, but none of its pain.

No, no no no, that's so stupid. That's the worst. Avril wasn't even aiming for Riley!

"Stop that, you're fine--" Xander tries to interrupt, hissing it too quietly to keep his voice from shaking, but then Riley goes and says that before going limp in Xander's arms.

Any ability to speak is ripped right out of Xander's mouth, but Ruth says what his mouth is suddenly too dry to do. Much as his face seems at a loss of what to do, the regret and the sorrow is unguarded to her senses.

It's when she speaks again that Xander finally snaps back to reality, grabbing hold of Riley to lift him off the ground, one arm slung around Xander's shoulder to help support the weight. He's poised for action, like a bristling cat, slowly making a step back.

He does not expect they'll let him run away now, after everything. He does not deserve that. But all the same... if the opportunity is given, he'll take it to flee to safety, the curse unsated.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly sags onto the ground. It's easier this way. She feels cold, despite the flame. She looks towards Riley as the air grows clearer, gentler - perhaps - Cold, light, more. Elly's eyes turn towards Fei as she takes in a huge breath -

It helps. She rolls to her side. He's trying to talk them down. Elly cannot help but think of the way that both of them perhaps have jittered back and forth on the successful use of their great potential for violence.

Yet somehow --

What Riley is saying --

Elly feels her eyes water. She wants to sob, hearing this. To bawl. She can't help it. Does it not simply seem too utterly miserable? And all of this as they were walking back from a morningtime fishing trip. Is this the nature of Filgaia, moments like this behind every corner?

Elly, at least, cannot bring herself to call up the Ether to strike the two men.

Though to be fair, this could just be taken as 'that's a lot of blood and she may not be fully conscious.' Perhaps it's not even wrong. But perhaps in the end the nature of consciousness is pain; pain, and sorrow, and despair.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I mean." Fei says apologetically but doesn't finish it because Riley said to not answer that.

"Okay I'm sorry! This is an unususal situation for me!!" Fei says. "I feel really bad about this situation! I wish you didn't have to murder people to live because that's really messed up! It's as messed up as it is pretty much completely nonsensical and pointlessly cruel!"

Fei can't bring up his guard in time and admittedly, for a moment, it seems like there might be a 'sacrifice' after all. At least this time it wouldn't have been a choice on Fei's part.

"Ruth...?" He asks. "...Why did you...?"

He supposes it's a natural enough thing to do for most people, to protect enough, but Fei is no sapling and Ruth never seemed precisely like the sort of person. Not for him. They barely know each other.

WHen Riley falls, Fei feels uncomfortable. The way he speaks of feeling like he was just being humored, it hits a little close to home. Is that how he looks to others, he wonderes--

"Hey don't say that..." Fei begins. "Stop speaking like it's last words--"

He is in no condition to pursue, emotionally or otherwise. The fact that there's shit like this going on on Filgaia.

FEI PSYCHO UP

Well, it makes him wonder if it wouldn't be better to give it some kind of restart sometimes. Just sort of try to fix the problems start over at the base. It's the thought of a crazy person and yet it's just so horrible.

Fei approaches Elly instead and gives her hand a squeeze. "You okay?" He murmurs.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril glances fleeingly in Fei's direction as he makes his own suggestion for an alternative. But if there had been one... wouldn't they have already tried it? It may well be that there is no clean solution for Xander and Riley -- that it could be a matter of their lives against the world.

    The last time, they had been able to discover another way. This time, though...
    Avril will leave it up to those who will try, but she will be prepared to attempt what may need to be done.

    So it is even now: her intent is lethal as she closes on Xander, the beam that she lashes about making the very air scream.

    But it won't be Xander upon whom the blows fall. Riley interposes himself. One, two...
    It's far too late to stop. The importance when using this weapon is to commit, to continue to move, lest she herself lose control over it altogether.
    And... it may all be the same, anyway. They're afflicted by the same curse. They'll have the same ends.

    She's only able to ask her question once Absolute Zero's charge is well and truly spent, her gaze on the wounded Riley:

    "...Why?"

    Avril already knows the answer.

    There are only two possible destinations on the road before them. To act now may be more kindness than cruelty.

    She does nothing but watch, as Xander picks him up and bears him off. She hopes she will not regret this.

    Her gaze lingers on the point where they had both been even after they escape. Only at some length does Avril turn about, the Medium in her hands. "Lucadia..."

    In this moment, she can do more than wound.