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 Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:12 pm
... Everyone seemed to be acting within normal parameters. Malodore's gaze darted from student to student, assessing them. Watching them for any anomalous behavior. Any little quirk that might give them away...
"Va bene... you... you're all real. Except..." It pointed at Riley. "For her."
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:19 pm
Sharra smiled wearily over in Petro's direction, and nodded. "Yeah...we're all alive and well...well, kind of well, if you understand." All right, that was far too many wells. Sighing, he took a step back, though not too large a step, he'd no intention of getting far enough away from the others so that they'd just go a'poofing into the mists once more.
He all but face-palmed (with his claw no less) at the Maladore and Riley situation, however. Just grand. "Maladore..." He murmured, sidling closer to the plague doctor. "...tell me why she's not real, exactly?" Perhaps if he knew the source of its doubt, then he'd be able to dispute it. Damn, these hallucinations were getting rather brilliant if they were fooling even Maladore's mind....and Sharra only had the vaguest of hopes of changing its mind on the matter.
Great. Just great. "Aksaja...see if you can't get Riley out of her...er...happy place there." The dragon boil had seemed to be doing just fine, taking charge of the situation. Well, someone needed to, since the mindflayer had abandoned ship, which, with the current situation, the nergal could hardly blame her for. But they needed everyone...or else they'd lose people...gods.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:19 pm
Information was swirling rapidly in her head. There was no room for her own private thoughts. There was no room for Aksaja's cries, or any auditory responses. Her senses were shut down, as her mind was consumed thoroughly by nothing but the knowledge.
Billions of facts were moving in and out of her mind with lightning speed. It felt like an undertow, twirling her helplessly with no way to control it.
When Aksaja punched her in the shoulder, her body could not respond to the action - and therefore she just toppled over to one side, falling to the ground.
Then the voices came.
There was no way to distinguish who was saying what, but they all had similar notions of what she was supposed to be doing right now. Kill everyone. Perhaps there were thousands of scenarios running through her head as to how, but the general theme remained - to save them all, she had to kill them all.
It was the only way.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:21 pm
Seeing Sheridan make it back, Jericho lowered his sword for the time being. It seemed like his makeshift beacon had helped out. Grinning, he nodded before looking towards the others.
"Yeah... for the most part anyway. Seems like we've all been shaken pretty har--" his voice trailed off as he saw Riley.. just sitting there with a cloudy look in her eyes. Jack dammit, the illusions had her now. That had to be the only reason for this.
"s**t," he cursed before quickly kneeling down by her and Malodore. Grasping her by the shoulder he tried to shake her awake, "Riley! RILEY! Snap out of it!"
She looked oddly at peace, if not incredibly sad. Whatever she was going through, it didn't seem like it was... physically painful. There was no way he could tell what was going through her mind right now, but the lack of a freak out was kind of disconcerning.
The fact that she didn't react to Aksaja's punch was also worrysome.
"VOOI! RILEY!"
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:24 pm
"She's acting strange," Malodore said, defensively. "You're all acting normally, but she isn't. So she can't be real."
... Nevermind that the Riley it had seen torn apart had been acting entirely normal. It was not going to be fooled again! No, there had to be some sign, some little tell that it had missed before. Well, it was on to that now! It wasn't... couldn't... be tricked again...
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:28 pm
Ah hell. "Look, she was FINE until you pushed her away," Aksaja snapped at the plague doctor. Screw hurting people's feelings or whatever. The only way to get through this was to stick together and help each other. Hopefully. Maybe.
But the facts were the facts. "Just . . . I dunno, touch her. TALK to her. At least TRY, dammit!" Reaching over, he grabbed for Malodore's hand, intending to force it to touch Riley if it wouldn't do so on its own.
Something bad was happening here, he could just tell . . .
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:31 pm
Sharra sighed, running fingers through tousled, dampened hair. This could take a while. "Ne, she's had a rough time of it, Maladore...we all have...and if she isn't real, then she isn't going to hurt you, I mean, we're all standing here watching her. But if she is real, then she needs you, right? If you're wrong...even just this once...then it could be devastating for Riley. I know she's important to you, and you're important to her..." Honestly, he didn't know what else he could say on the matter, but it most assuredly made sense to him. Only time would tell if plague doctor would agree with the nergal's logic.
And now she'd fallen over, brilliant. "Aksaja...help Riley carefully?" He called over, wincing as the ghoul hit the ground. They didn't need to be carrying about an incapacitated member of their party. Forcing people to do things would only result in violence within their own party. "This is Maladore's choice..." And surely he'd make the right one.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:31 pm
"Welcome back," She grinned, immensely relieved; she felt like a load just got lifted off her shoulder. Now to wait for the rest of them; she has to believe that they're all fine, somehow... Arachne, Sepheran, Mac... When the boil fell, she took it upon herself to wrap her arms around his neck to give him a quick hug, ignoring the fact that he was barely dressed, "We're alive. We made it out..."
The happy moment was then disrupted by Jericho's yell.
Letting go of Petro and tugging on his arm to get him up, she pointed at the group, where something seemed to be happening. The sense of urgency in her voice was unmistakable as she frowned, "Hurry." Without waiting for him to get up, she made her way back to the group first, her frown deepening when she saw Riley - the Riley who called out to her - on the ground.
"... Riley?! Riley, snap out of it!"
What's wrong? What's- Her eyes turned to Malodore.
"If we can all see the same thing, it's not an illusion!"
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:34 pm
She was convinced. That much was certain. However, she couldn't do anything while still connected to her hive - so her disconnection was sudden, and jarring. Still, it left her with the ability to move her body, which was all she needed.
Her eyes - still gray, still filled with some sort of static, stared up at Jericho suddenly. They had no emotion in them, but if her facial features could be read correctly, she was trying to smile.
I figured it out, Jericho. She murmured quietly. I know what to do now.
She pushed herself up, first to her knees, and then to her feet. If anyone tried to reach for her, she would ignore them. All that mattered was that she did what she had to do quickly - before it was too late. Before she was no longer sure.
And because it was only fair, she would take Malodore first. It did not deserve to watch as she destroyed everyone - even if it was for their own good.
She pushed Jericho out of the way and moved to stand in front of her plague doctor. She pulled the mace out from behind her backpack, and it surged to life. Small, sharp, dangerous looking psionic crystals hovered around it's rounded tip, spinning in place.
She bent down and brushed her face against his beak. Ti amo, cara mia. She murmured, as she closed her eyes.
The mace rose.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:37 pm
To Jericho's relief, he saw her eyes clear. There was something very eerie in her expression though. What happened in her illusion? But, it seemed she had snapped out of it, seeing how she had spoken to him. He was a little confused with her words, however. Still, he backed off to give her some room as she got back up.
His relaxed state didn't stay for long.
Seeing his friend raise the mace against Malodore, his golden eyes widened and he quickly lunged out to try and grab a hold of her wrist.
"RILEY! WHAT THE JACK ARE YOU DOING?!" he cried out.
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:42 pm
--!
She was real-
Malodore dove to one side and screamed at her with its mind - it was extraordinarily inexpert, naturally, but it did what it could, bundling up all the fear and desperation it had felt that day into a ball which it then 'flung' at the mindflayer, making itself as open as it possibly could. Inasmuch as it understood the concept.
Arrestare! Non è vero!
It was shaking again - it knew it couldn't stand up to her in a physical contest. Not in a million years. But it had to try and snap her out of it!
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:46 pm
OH s**t. What the JACK was she doing, threatening the plague doctor with that mace??!!
Aksaja didn't even think for more than a moment, the blink of an eye. Then he snapped, "Sharra, help me!" And he DOVE at Riley's legs, trying to take her down before she did something they were likely to ALL regret later on.
He was hoping to get her on the GROUND and then the nergal boil could help him pin her. Or something. Oh Jack . . .
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:50 pm
And he'd scuttled out of the way the moment that Riley had started to draw near, acidic green eyes going wide as saucers. Oh Jack...that was all kinds of catastrophic. At least it seemed to have snapped Maladore out of whatever stupor that the hallucinations of the fog seemed to have put it in. Taking a deep breath, Aksaja's words rang in his ears, and the nergal hardly thought...merely reacted, tossing himself, arms outstretched, at the mindflayer's midsection, hoping to add his own weight to the dragon's in order to hopefully topple Riley. "Jackdammit! You really don't wanna go doing that!" He cried out, in the vain hope that it would actually reach Riley somewhere deep inside her own mind.
What was this place doing to them!?
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:55 pm
Malodore's dive wouldn't have saved it. Riley was too fast, and the mace had already been in motion - but Jericho's hand snaked around and held her arm steadfast. She heard the cry in her head, mixed in with the thousands of other voices telling her to finish them now. She couldn't tell who was who. Malodore slipped away, and Riley's mental voice let out an animalistic growl. She turned her head, very, very slowly, to glare at Jericho. Her eyes were still filled with static (or was that fog..?) but now they were a bright, bloody red.
Don't. She turned the rest of her body. Get. Her tentacles began to swirl around her. IMPATIENT! They all lunged at Jericho, ready to slice into his body at several different points. They would have reached him, had two strong boils not suddenly come flying into her, tackling her several feet away. Her body slammed into the ground with a solid thud, and her head knocked against the gravel painfully. Her eyes winced closed with the pain.
When they opened again, they were still staticy red. Sorry, boils. Nice try though.
I PROMISE I will get to ALL of you! She screamed, as several of her tentacles slid around both of their waists. They would attempt to pull the two boils off of her. Why won't you all just WAIT!
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Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:00 pm
It hadn't worked it hadn't worked merde-
But she was down. She wouldn't stay down, it knew. "Try and hold her!" Malodore shouted, suddenly intensely grateful for the other students' presence. It had one thing left to try... just one thing.
Riley had manifested some of her FEAR into her mace. It stood to reason, then, that Malodore could do the same with its own weapon. The plague doctor held its book, clutching it to its chest for a moment and forcing itself to close its eyes and focus...
A bile-colored miasma began to coalesce around the tome, licking out of the space between the pages. Malodore opened its eyes and threw the book down in front of Riley's face - not striking her, though when the book hit the gravely ground the force of its fall sent gravel bits pinging everywhere. The miasma rose around Riley's head.
It wasn't very strong, considering. Just a mild stomach flu... but it had purging as a side effect...
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