|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:00 pm
Those eyes. Jericho didn't know what was going on with her, but something was terribly wrong. Was she still locked in illusion? He couldn't be certain, but he saw that she had just tried to attack him with her tentacles. Thankfully Aksaja and Sharra had intercepted her with their tackle.
Quickly, he slid over by her head to try and pin down the writhing tentacles that were making their way to the other boys.
"VOI!!! RILEY!"" he shouted, "Snap out of it! WE'RE ON YOUR SIDE!!"
He didn't know how they were going to get her to come out of this. The dragon may just have to try and knock the mindflayer out... Looking up towards Malodore, he tried to see if the doctor had any sort of idea what was going on here. He didn't know what it was doing with that bluish stuff, but hopefully it would help.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:05 pm
Oh...oh that was not the reaction that he'd been hoping for. With a bit of a startled cry, Sharra hesitated for about half a second, before moving to claw slightly at those tentacles, wrapping those sharp, green digits about Riley's grasping extensions and attempting to yank them from his person without actually damaging them...er...much. "I don't really want to be gotten!" He growled, already mentally apologizing to the ghoul...something which he'd likely have to do aloud later. "C'mon, Riley! We need you with us!"
Hopefully whatever Maladore was trying would work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:06 pm
Ohshit. Oh s**t oh s**t, this wasn't good. Though it had all happened in kind of a flash, Aksaja had noticed all those near-misses with disaster, and now Riley was trying to rip them off of her.
WITH HER TENTACLES. Oh s**t.
With a low grunt, Aksaja kept one hand pressed down on the mindflayer to try and keep her STILL, whilst his other hand moved toward the tentacles wrapped around his waist. He knew those were sensitive from past experience. And even if Riley hated him for this later . . . Jack, it was the only thing he could think of now.
With a sound not unlike a roar, he brought his hand back, formed a fist, and aimed a rather forceful punch at the tentacles about his waist. "WAKE UP RILEY. COME ON, DAMMIT!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:07 pm
She can't do anything but watch as Riley attacked the boils who had tried to stop her from hitting Malodore, eyes wide; this was worse than the illusions. Those were fake, a manifestation of her fears... But this? This was no illusion, if they could all see it. She was so confused, so very confused; why would anyone want to hurt their love and their best friend?
The miasma from Malodore's FEAR was very much like her own FEAR manifestation, and she watched in horror as it threw the book at the mindflayer, causing the miasma to rise. Everyone was so confused that it was making her confused...
... She could only hope Malodore knew what it was doing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:15 pm
Riley let out a guttural, mind-shattering yell, as several of her so called friends assaulted her tentacles. They wrenched themselves away from their attackers, writhing in agony before sliding behind her and hiding away as best as they could. She reached out with her clawed hands and slid one each around Aksaja and Sharra's throats, preparing to deal with them the old fashioned way - when a gust of miasma penetrated her senses. Her clutch constricted, before releasing the two. A wave of nausea and weakness overtook her, and her eyes faded to a dark grey, and closed.
She groaned pitifully. Her hands dropped down to her stomach, and her tentacles cringed as they tried their best not to expel themselves.
Opening her static filled eyes once more, they glanced at the holder of the book that was making her sick, and widened in pleading.
Stop.. Please.. Malodore..
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:20 pm
"No," Malodore said quietly but firmly. "You need to come to your senses. Now." It stared at the book, trying to will the FEAR imbued into it to work more powerfully - it was working, at least a little! As if in response the miasma wafted upwards, tracking Riley's head as she moved.
Its hands were shaking again as it glanced up at the others. This had to work. It had to. Otherwise... this was going to be horrible. Absolutely horrible. It shuddered as it remembered what a mindflayer's tentacles had been capable of in its hallucination. It didn't know what was driving Riley to violence, but it knew she could very easily make good on her threat if she wasn't brought back to her senses - or incapacitated - quickly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:21 pm
Whatever Malodore had done, it seemed to get her to at least stop attacking everyone. Jericho saw that her eyes hadn't returned to normal just yet. Looking up to the Plague Doctor, he shook his head to try and tell it not to cease this stuff. With her still in this state, she would likely attack them all once the blue miasma stopped. Thankfully, Malodore had no intention of doing that.
"Riley. Listen to me," he growled at her, "Whatever's going on, snap out of it. We are in this together. We need you with us, not against us! Now WAKE UP!"
Still, he stood by, ready to try and knock her out with a punch if this didn't work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:27 pm
Ah hell . . . When Riley's hand closed about his throat, Aksaja shifted - moving to grab her wrist and try to force her off of him. The tentacles were gone now at least, so that was . . . sort of good.
And whatever Malodore was doing seemed to be working too. Or at least it was doing something. "C'mon Riley . . . wake up . . . " he half-rasped, trying to get a breath. And then her hands dropped, and Aksaja backed off quickly - not sure what else to do. He didn't really want to be strangled . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:29 pm
Now that Riley had stopped trying to kill everyone, she inched closer to her, chewing nervously on her lower lip before dropping to her knees, kneeling down beside Jericho. Nervously, she patted the ghoul's hand - now rested on her stomach and not around someone's neck thankfully - the same way she would with Amrita whenever they were in a bind.
"I believe in you," Her tone was firm; she's been saying it a lot, but the mindflayer had proved herself to be a capable leader, "So please listen... We need you back. We're so close to the lighthouse now... We're going to make it there together."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:30 pm
The nergal made a strangled, and somewhat undignified sound as the mindflayer's fingers went for his neck, and he knew quite instantly that he wouldn't be able to evade her. For a few fleeting seconds, he rather thought that Riley was going to kill the both of them, and his eyes darted to Aksaja, seeing if the dragon was faring any better than he.
And then...quite suddenly...the ghoul let go, and Sharra released a breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding. "Oh Jack..." He breathed, trying to pull himself back together, clambering from where he'd fallen onto his a**. "Riley...m'sorry..." Already forming his apology as he rather sheepishly scooted over...but not too terribly close to the lass. He didn't exactly want tentacles trying to strangle the dickens out of him once more, thank you just the same.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:34 pm
No? She repeated quietly. And a second time - though not as quietly.
NO?!
She wanted to rip the boils who were holding her down apart. She let out one last scream, though it bubbled up and died off into a whimper. She couldn't hold on any longer, she felt so tired, so sick..
Her stomach lurched violently, and her tentacles came out of hiding from behind her. Several of them finally expelled their contents at Jericho, Aksaja, and Sharra's feet.
It was, funny enough, the sheer embarrassment of doing so that knocked Riley out of her mental caged illusion. Her eyes blackened for a moment - which was a frightening sight in and of itself - before they lightened back to their normal, milky white hue. The static slowly started to fade.
No.. She whispered hoarsely, as her body sagged in their arms. She looked thoroughly humiliated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:35 pm
The monster horse was just as confused as Lizzy. His body felt like lead from his crashing adrenaline, but he had to get to his feet, had to do something to help stop Riley. He didn't trust himself to be able to defend Lizzy, not without accidentally hurting her the way he had in the hallucination. He forced himself to his feet, moving closer towards the mindflayer but keeping out her reach as well as Malodore's miasma. He'd retrieved his mace, the weapon didn't look particulalry remarkable the way the others' weapons did. It simply became larger, heavier, the spikes less dull and longer. He wasn't certain if it was over. He hoped it was.
((ooc: phone posting = sloooow Huni, had to edit x.x))
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:37 pm
... oh thank Candlejack. Malodore dropped to its knees; as it did so, the miasma rising from the book faded away. It stayed there for a moment, just staring at the ground unmoving... at least, until a trickle of bile crept into its field of vision. Only then did it glance up once more, gaze going straight to Riley. Searching her eyes for any sign of sanity.
---? it projected at her, hesitantly; the sense of questioning was overlaid with a sense of the plague doctor's own fight-or-flight reflex. It was ready to run away from her - in fear - if she wasn't okay.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:44 pm
Cringing as Riley lurched, Jericho stared down as he saw brain vomit all around his feet. That was... a lovely sight to see... But more importantly, the mindflayer's eyes had returned to normal finally. With a sigh of relief, he wrapped his arms around her.
"Thank Jack you're back," he murmured before loosening his grip, "Don't scare us like that again. Ever. Please?"
Concern was written all over his face as he stared down at her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:49 pm
(( So much backreading XD ))
Arachne had lost a sense of where she was, who she was with as the whispers from her mother kept coming. She could hear other sounds, like fighting, shouting, but they were distant as if coming at her down a tunnel. She also knew that she was still holding onto Sepheran's hand, she could feel his fingers with hers. But that was all she knew..
You don't want this, you should never love. If you love it will rip you open one day and everyone will see your heart, because fate will reach into your chest and snatch it out..
'I'm not you..' she murmured, her lips barely moving.
He'll die. They'll all die. And you will watch. Seer. That's all we do. See.'
'He's not Daddy..I just want friends!'
That's how it starts - you see a friend in trouble and you try to help. But you fail, the future maps out as you saw it because of your intervention, your actions. Seeing. Doing. It's the same thing..'
'No, I can't be alone, don't you get it?'
Tears flowed freely down her face and she sobbed quietly as she moved.
'Not anymore, please, please let me have people Mother. Please let me go back to school.'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
