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 Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 9:52 pm
Lethe slowly let her arm drop, also finding no further point in continuing her line of questioning any further. Callix, it seemed, was not willing to talk to her -- this infuriated her more than anything else, to the point where she nearly forgot about their present situation.
"Yes, we should find everyone and get out," she finally agreed, "But I think we should try to... figure out what's wrong with Dusty, first. She is acting strange like you ar--did, but in a different way."
She carefully approached the smaller girl, circling around her and inspecting her from different angles as best she could in the limited light. "I think you came back when she swung at you with her sword, right? So.. Maybe her sword has magic making-not-crazy powers?!"
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:03 pm
The incubus wasn't sure what to make of all this anymore. None of this would have happened if he hadn't picked up the Yes Board. No one would be hurt and Dusty wouldn't be braindead. It all seemed very hopeless. Sighing, he stood up to stare at the toddler he was so used to loathing, how she kept getting in the way and demanded everything she could remember the English word to. Lethe was probably worried about her, terribly so.
But then an idea struck him. As calmly as he could, he sauntered up to the toddler and leaned over, looking her straight in the eye. Though he was a few feet away, he secretly hoped this would work. If only to ease what little conscience he had.
"Dustin, mon frere, did I ever tell you how pretty you look with a sword?"
That got her across her greatest fear - water. Maybe it would work this time?
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:28 pm
The toddler seemed unaffected by even this most grevious of insults. Shame.
In the meantime, the liquid that Callix had found when backed up by the television had apparently begun to spread. A pool of shimmering white was now very noticable to the naked eye, puddled mostly in the area of the television but seeming to slowly spread across the room. It seemed harmless, however.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:45 pm
"...What is that stuff?" Lethe asked, brows furrowing as she gestured with both hands towards the liquid. At least it didn't seem to be doing anything bad, like setting the things it touched on fire, or summoning hordes of evil hamsters, but... She still didn't want it touching her.
"Dusty? Dusty, you have to wake up, okay?" What was with her? She was acting like.. Like Sei. Only at least Sei was asleep, Dusty was still walking around and swinging her sword and stuff.
Maybe there was something wrong with her on the inside, like wiring had gotten loose, or her lightbulb needed changing, or something. Lethe hesitated, anxiously shifting her weight between both feet -- but in the end, pure curiosity, and her desire to have Dusty back now please, won. The last time -- with Sei -- was just a fluke.
Besides which, Dusty was already broken, how could she make it worse?
"Don't look, I'm going to try something," Lethe huffed to Callix, bringing her ribbon up to her teeth as she worked her hands free from several loops of the blue fabric. The sudden extra length trailed down to the ground, and Lethe waited patiently as the tips of her fingers turned clear. It was only when the translucency travelled down to her elbows that she finally dared to approach Dusty.
Hoping Dusty would not interpret this as an attack, Lethe hovered warily over her, fingers spread, and finally thrust her hands through the younger girl's forehead.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 10:50 pm
Well, Callix did the best he could. Backing up and keeping a watchful eye on the strange liquid, the young man stood a few feet away from them. The whole 'thrusting one's hands into a friend's forehead' thing gave him the creeps. Nothing he did involved infiltration on someone's skull. He huffed and turned away.
Once she fixes Dusty, we better get out of here...
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Sable Eye Cerena rolled 1 10-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-10)
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:09 pm
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:25 pm
It was hard to describe the way that Lethe might see the memories in Dusty's head at just that moment, so what is easiest to do is to take it to a visual metaphor.
Imagine a pit. A deep, deep pit, in which things are thrown and then you wait and wait but never hear it hit the bottom. And now, imagine- in the center of that pit, there is something else. Which is a little black hole. And somewhere in that black hole, maybe all of "Dusty" has fallen, leaving something far more base to support the pit and the hole and everything else that should have been filled with "Dusty" and her memories, but instead had nothing even remotely recognizable as human, god, or even vegetable.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:35 pm
[Man, Lethe, you suck. SOMEONE GET THIS GIRL A RABBIT'S FOOT OR SOMETHING.]
The River Fa'e was surprised to find her hands slipping through so easily, and wriggling her fingers, she suddenly realized that the reason was because there was nothing there.
No, it wasn't quite that there was nothing there, there was something -- she could barely feel the edges of it leading down into what felt vaguely like a black hole in the center of Dusty's mentalscape.
It was very, very odd, and not at all what Lethe was used to or expecting. She froze, unbreathing, and felt the hole and the nothingness in it, and knew it very, very well.
"Hades!" She cursed suddenly, her native accent slipping, and reflexively jerked away, liquid fingers stained black where she'd touched it. It was too late though, that much she realized. "Callix, egkataleipamen --" It took her precious seconds to stop and sort through her mental translating notes, "--We have to leave, now!"
It wasn't fear; she didn't sound fearful, only vaguely concerned, if her words were inflected with any emotion at all.
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:47 pm
Too late, indeed; with a single slam, both doors in the room locked themselves. The liquid on the ground was spreading quickly to cover the floor of the room now, spurred by Lethe's sudden panic, and with its increase in spread, its source became blindingly apparent- the television screen itself, with its flickering light. The static on the screen was trickling out of the monitor, impossibly so, and pooling swiftly on the floor- bit by bit, the water level began to rise.
A shape appeared on the screen, like a mass of teeth and grins that didn't know which direction they had to curve. "cOme tO m--- mE," it sang out, the fuzzy picture flickering. "i W--- aNT yOu, cHIld rIvER. coME...."
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 7:27 am
Normally, and under any other circumstances, Callix would have shrieked something about it being Lethe's fault, and how they have to evacuate now. But something in his mind stirred again as soon as he saw the flickering teeth on the monitor. It wanted Lethe, and the rows of canines reminded him vaguely of his own Guardian. But it wasn't her. She wouldn't take Lethe away.
The water level rising was alarming, but Callix couldn't shake the feeling. Dusty would follow her orders, thankfully, but he would make it see who was boss.
He wrapped an arm around the River's waist in defiance, and growled at the creature on the monitor. "She's mine."
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:04 pm
Lethe is not anyone's, came the universal agreement of an underworld river, but experience told her that it was not the most convenient time to voice this aloud. She neither pushed Callix away nor clung to him, realizing that -- at the moment -- he was her best defense at the moment.
The liquid made her antsy, and she kept a wary eye on its rising levels. Was it water? The thought suddenly made her remember her hands, and she grasped feebly at her ribbons. They predictably slipped through her fingers, and with a huff, she crouched down and grasped the edges of the ribbon with her teeth. Carefully wrapping her limbs up again, she stretched her fingers out as they returned to normalty, and straightened.
"Why.. are you here?" Though she tried her best to hide them, her emotions were still transparent: she was very, very nervous, and wanted nothing more than to hide.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:47 pm
"yOU CalLEd mE H--- HErE. aNd So i haVe cOMe. aND IF yOU WiLL noT NoW CoME tO ME...."
The image faded to black. Strangely, the room was not left to darkness; the liquid that was now sloshing around the children's ankles began to fizzle, tickling slightly as a quiet static filled the air around them and the grey, black and white image of the empty channel previously on the television light up in the strange liquid.
"i wiLl coMe TO YoU," the image flickered on the water surface beneath them, its form huge and threatening under their feet.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 3:58 pm
"You will do no such thing!" Callix seethed at the liquid, wings flaring up behind him to make himself look and feel bigger. The back of his mind told him there was no way he could save Lethe if whatever this was came out (looking as huge as it did), but instinct told him he had to try. And besides, they had Dusty with them, the perverbial Terminator.
A couple of extra hisses for emphasis helped, or so the child thought. He wrapped his free arm around Lethe and eyes darted around in a panic. He was a monster, but a small one facing a giant.
Wait. She called it here? Here to attack them? No, Lethe would never do that.
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:02 pm
"I did not!" Lethe protested, shifting uneasily on her feet, raising one foot at a time and rubbing it against the back of her other leg. She had never, ever felt so out of her element, not even when she was just reborn. "I was calling for Styx. You weren't meant to come, I didn't want you to. J...just go away!"
Right, like it would really listen to her. And then maybe it would turn into a pink pony princess, and together they could have tea and crumpets!
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Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:16 pm
"bUT sTYx is MiNE, aNd thUS WaS YOuR cALl."
"yOU cALlEd foR mE, ANd i cAMe."
"nOW i cALl FOr yOU, rIVeR CHiLD...."
The image in the water gave way to white noise. The water was threatening the knees of those assembled- somewhat more, for the yet unresponsive Dustin.
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