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Something strange happened to Amrita, shortly following their hug, but Thackery couldn't quite place what was wrong. His observational skills only went so far, so he determined that she had probably decided to go have fun somewhere, because that seemed nice enough.

"Be careful, 'kay? I'll be here if you need me. Have fun on your adventure, though! Yay!" He parted from Amrita with another brief hug and a very energetic wave, and turned to go back to...

...how had he gotten over here? And where were the others? Had something just bitten him?

Directly inverse to the last time he had been aware of his existence here, he found Erebus right next to him. His Rook! Excellent!

"Oh, none of that!" With a pleasant smile, he urged him upward, offering a gentle little pat on his head. "We are all equal, but different. No need to bow! I'm so glad to see you here, though! How have you been?"

The Black Queen approached without mercy and left without grace. The shadows engulfed him yet again, this time draining all they'd blessed and cursed him with. They took with them their horns and their power, leaving only a burnt husk, shaking on the floor and smeared in blood and grime. Fresh blood leaked from his mouth, a wide gash in his stomach where he'd been attacked.

Coughing wasn't an option, no self-medicating or sewing the wound shut. He couldn't even grab his bandages in his state. Sleep now, only sleep was available. The golden ring on his left hand felt incredibly heavy now, and burned coldly against his flesh.

The smell of old books, lemons, and sterility swept over him, the sound of turning pages and a pancake griddle playing a sweet lullaby as the sleep took him over.

ooc

Name of character: Lex
Faction: Hunter turned Horseman
HP: -16/50
DAMAGE DONE TO TARGETS: --

She had missed entirely, hands shaking.

Cami stepped in and nailed the Horseman, earning a grateful smile from Kylee before she spotted a staggering Lex out of the corner of her eye. Oh no.

Oh no no no.

Grey eyes went round and terrified, and she rushed to his side, bandages in hand. "Hey. Hey! Hang in there!"

He laid there, watching as Rin bent over him and was about to smile. He hurt all over and couldn't move, and he felt like a piece of s**t that he hadn't even managed to defend much of the blast before being thrown back. He barely stepped foot into battle and was already out for the count. He wanted to make a joke, poke fun at his own pathetic performance, before a red light flashed behind Rin and he felt something wet hit his face.

It was slow – and he wondered why the body had the ability to take in so much during a traumatic event, but with a ‘click’ of a distant recorder, the tape started to record.

Her body knelt, and the red light that highlighted her back had created a red halo that casted a shadow over her, and outlined her in red. Her curly, ink-black hair, which had started to get long again after all this time, moved out in curling waves from the force of the blast. Her eyes went wide, and he followed her gaze down to where her other arm, her only arm, flew past them, over them, away. He could see the light through her, as he took in the sight of sinew and bone that sizzled through her body and frayed the fabric of her clothes and bra. The tattered rags held loosely to her frame, only held up by burnt blood and her shoulders, and her saw the pieces of flesh and muscle drip down in clumps into her lap. Blood from below and above, no longer connected, gurgled like a fresh spring into her open cavity and spilled over down her pale stomach and into her clothes.

Despite seeing this open wound, he looked to Rin to check if she was okay. He looked at her face, and saw her struggle to breath and speak. “R..Ri..” He managed, adrenaline kicking in as shock started to be pushed to the forefront of his defenses.

Her body swayed as her face twisted in a way he had never seen it before. Grotesque on her once gorgeous features. In the distance, he heard Rep scream her name, and soon he was there in a wave of red. Red like the light of destruction. Red like her blood. Red like his hair.

He saw red.

She slumped against Rep as she toppled, her body smearing itself against his white jacket, before she fell upon him, and he noticed now that what had sprayed on his face was her blood, and felt it drip down against his cheeks and chin. She laid there against him, and he laid there under her, before what little strength he had reached out and touched her, wrapped around her to hold her, and he felt his hands dip into onthing but the gapping hold – unable to even hold her back when there was none.

“R…Rin?” He managed again, waiting for a reply. His mind saw but his brain hadn’t processed, shutting the gates down and shutting down all thoughts in hopes to keep it away. To keep the thoughts out.

“Rin?” He squeaked, tears welling up in his eyes as he held her, feeling the tissues and organ, the blood and her weight, press against him. Her hair brushed his cheek, and he could still smell her over the metallic odor and exposed organs. What he couldn’t feel was the expanse of her chest risign and falling whent here was no lungs or chest there, and he couldn’t hear anything.

His body shook as he gripped her, laying on the ground under her, and looked up at the open sky, gritting his teeth as he held in. Held his breath. Waited for it all to be a dream. To be an illusion. Waited for the answer back from her voice.

But nothing came.



And in a moment, he was alive again. Able again. Full of energy again. He wasn’t himself again, but the other Melvin, and he woke up to feel the body in his arms. He sat up, and he looked a the body before he dropped her, letting her fall down and looking at himself and then at her. “R.RIN?”







[quote="Baneful"

Insanity Lock lunged for the portal Medea disappeared into, but it blipped out of existence before he could do anything about it.

Someone attack him from the back, and he summoned another pair of shadowy hands, tendrils of darkness that threatened to eat Shun alive if he didn't stop. Of course, Insanity Lock hardly recognized Shun as anything more than "the person who was attacking him." Being Lock, he attacked back.

What are you- that's SHUN you idiot!! He had literally just healed the guy! Focus on the HUNTERS.

The chamber had given Mimsy the reward that she had been seeking after all, which came as a tremendous relief. It doubled as a new sense of comfort, providing the first answer in a series of many questions, and it was arguably the most substantial answer of them all, considering what it meant. As soon as she found him outside that door, she took Robert's hand again, and clutched it with a silent refusal to let go.

The Tower urged them upward, delivering flickering images of chaos and ruin that seemed to mock her for her choice, until the stairs ended on an uneven surface. It was a battlefield, drenched so intensely in destruction that it saturated the air, and she recoiled immediately at the sight of it.

"Um." She felt dizzy, breaths shallow and increasingly rapid, toeing the line of hyperventilation. They were at war, just as they had always been at war, but that meant something different now - and it would get much, much worse if she lay a hand on it. "No. We should not be here. We should go to...to...we really should not be here."

One shaky hand reflexively rose towards her throat, which was painfully tight with anxiety, and found a clock on a chain instead of the cloth of her scarf. It was easy to overlook when it hadn't been ticking, so determining where (or when) it came from would be somewhat difficult. Regardless of its origins, she didn't want it. She didn't like the fact that it had stopped.

She wanted more time.

"Please don't go away." There was fear in the wide eyes that stared up at him, something that she very scarcely exhibited. Whatever she was frightened of clearly had a firm hold on her. "It hurts. Then I will die. And it will hurt even more when I begin again."

Well, there was something.

Jason, though Milo didn't exactly know it was him at the time given he wasn't totally familiar with the guy nor witnessed his change of factions completely (though, wait, was it? Maybe he had, no time to think about it), came on him suddenly. The only thing he managed to do was push Noemi away from him as he took the brunt of the attack. Milo grunted and reeled, his steps faltering, and Koume chided him as usual as she demanded he do his job. He looked so flashy and cool and here he was getting broadsided along with two others. It kind of stung too.

Well, time to go to work. Milo took one step back before he pushed himself forward at the changed Hunter, he flicked the naginata once before he extended the staff outward and the blade forward in a jabbing motion.