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“You’re still thinking about her in a time like this?” Liryn asked, squinting into the water. “I shouldn’t be surprised. With the bond we have, you can’t blame me. I wasn’t going to let you get into danger alone. But if I had to choose between the two of you…”

He fell quiet and shrugged. “She’s fine. I’ve been looking after her. But I get frustrated, sometimes. She says things about you sometimes that bother me. She doesn’t try as hard as you do. She doesn’t take it seriously at all. I just miss you. I wanted to be here with you and make sure you weren't getting in trouble. This place is creepy. I can’t feel anyone’s energy signatures, Athene. I don’t think they’re down here. Or…”

He shuddered and pressed close..

If they hadn’t made it out, there was only one other option.

Eternal Ida

"We can't stay here." Ida's brother hissed, tugging her after him by the grip she had on his arm. "This place is too dangerous. There's something in the water, and its probably already gotten your friends."

There was something odd about the way he cast about him, obviously nervous about... whatever it was in the water. And that water was getting deeper. All the more to worry her, too. As a senshi, she could probably handle herself even in deep water, but there was still that old, old fear. Fear from the helpless feeling, from the mystery of dark waters.

"We're better off sticking with the others, and there is no way that thing would have taken them down so easily." She said, resisting him. She hated this... she wanted to protect him so badly, but duty tore her in two directions. Running would mean abandoning the others, and giving up on the task they had been set. So even more than just her friends, she'd be abandoning this world to the chaos that infested it.

"Don't you want to keep me safe?" Matthew shot at her, unconciously echoing her thoughts with accusation in his voice. "Don't you care about me? I'm scared... I don't want to die!"

The words were like a stab through the chest and Ida had to fight to push back tears. He couldn't know who she actually was... he never would have said something like that if he'd known.

Something knocked against her legs, the form long and slippery, and Ida jumped, grabbing to pull Matthew close to her side. <********>... there was something in the water.

Illyria, Mauvian

Even as her form was 'dropped' did Illyria still try to keep her teeth sunk into Ida's arm. Or was it Ida? There wasn't anything that she could use as a comparison but surely humans didn't taste like this. Even as she was pried off did she manage a feeble scratch to go with the bite. Something had taken a hold of her thoughts, insisting that this lookalike wasn't her friend.

Even as she gamely tried to paddle back towards the shelf could the Mauvian feel the effects of having used up almost all of her strength before. The water didn't 'feel' right and she swore it was almost if there was something trying to drag her down. But her paws scrambled for purchase on the shelf ledge as she pulled herself onto it once more. Overcome with exhaustion did Illyria give a baleful meow. "Leave me alone if you know what's good for you," it hurt to even hear the words coming out of her mouth directed at what she had thought was Ida but she wasn't in any state to deal with it.

The air was thick with humidity, and electricity, and chaos. But, for a brief moment, there was something more.

Order. Magic. Something powerful. Something familiar, something good. A light in the darkness, Ganymede’s Purification magic surged from the Core of his world and the shadows, all connected, carried the blast throughout the Hall.

The shadowy illusions hummed, and for a split second, light shined through. It flickered along the illusion, like fire burning a thread. For a split second, there was a clarity that hadn’t been there before, an understanding–

There was a reason they were here.

They were supposed to do something. Destroy–something...

But the illusion was quick to restore, but it wasn’t quite perfect. Maybe the room was lopsided and water seemed to splash up the walls. For a moment, it was over their heads, like they were drowning, and then it was at their ankles, and then back to their chest. Maybe there was something just a little off about their would-be companion–like looking in a mirror, or like they had a filter over them.

For a brief second, they weren’t as strong; they felt like shifting water, but they corrected themselves quickly.

Just, maybe not quick enough to avoid detection.

Selinur lost Willow for a moment; his hand passed right through her and she made a startled noise. For a second, the walls dropped around him and he could see that he was tucked away in a shadowy bubble, but Willow was there, talking again.

“Just because we have been careful doesn’t mean all of us have. Not everyone is as self-sacrificing, Selniur. Do you think this world needs a reason to want to harm another? You know them.” Willow smelled of sulfur, and the odor clung to her. She took a few steps forward, but this time her grip on Selinur’s wrist was fierce.

“You have always listened to me before. Now is not the time for mischief. I have always guided you. You should listen to me now. Come on.”

Illyria was swallowed by the water, smothered by it, but she reached the shelf. It was a draining experience, and Ida’s eyes were dark–black, almost.

“You stupid little cat,” she seethed. “I was trying to help you. But if you want to die here, so be it. No one will miss you when you go. You’re a small, insignificant little rodent. I could have made you great. You’ll never last on your own.”

She rubbed at her arm and hissed, and–

Slipped below the water’s surface with such force that it looked like something had grabbed her.

Something was drowning her.

And, the shadows on the wall stretched towards Illyria, ready to feed on her when her strength finally gave out.

Liryn went rigid by Athene, and his nails dug into the senshi’s shoulder–not because it seemed as if he wanted to attack him, but it looked as though a current of electricity shot through him. He hissed and flailed and his tail smacked Athene in the face.

“Why would you say something so hurtful?” Liryn said, but the voice echoed strangely. “You know I’ve always been here for you, Athene. I care about you more than anyone else ever will. I came to save you and this is the thanks I get? Apologize to me.”

Quote:

Characters can use this opportunity to have a clarifying moment that allows them to break through the spell of Chaos! If you are playing your own chaos manifestation, it may turn into a mirrored reflection of itself, or may shift forms in front of you; if you have any questions or want to see if something works, please let me know! If you want to continue speaking to your Chaos character or engage it in more than one post, please let me know when you quote me and I will try to tag back as soon as possible instead of waiting for the next prompt! If your character has already broken out, they might be able to help others in their group but please make sure this works for them before posting! If your chaos manifestation is not destroyed by the post on the 16th (sometime after 8PM EST) the Chaos will be forcibly destroyed around you but you will have a prompt to find and destroy the chaos anomaly polluting the area; if you break through the illusion, you can start heading towards the back room to confront it or try to reunite with the others!

Eternal Ida

The body Ida held against her side seemed to shift and wriggle, losing some of it's solidity. Light flashed everywhere, and for a moment, Ida could see the room again through the darkness. Just a flicker, a reminder that they had come here for a reason.

The level of the water around them seemed to change from moment to moment... it was hard to really focus her mind on it, but it didn't always seem chest deep the way it appeared. Matthew broke from her hold and grabbed her by the wrist, tugging her back towards the ladder.

"Come on! If we stay here, we're going to die!" He said, his voice plaintive.

But there was something odd about him too. A wrongness in someone who was so familiar. It hadn't been there before, but in that flicker, something had changed in him. It made Ida's stomach tighten with unhappy flutters.

"No." She said as she pulled back, resisting him. "No, I'm going to find the others."

With a tug, she pulled free of him, stumbling back through the water.

"Illyria!" Ida called, casting about in the darkness. "Athene?"

Eternal Athene

For a moment a light burned through the darkness, illuminating the shadows and chasing away the hazy fogginess–

And at the same time Liryn - or rather the thing that was wearing his mauvian friend’s form went suddenly rigid.

Athene winced as claw sank into his shoulder, shredding through fabric and into flesh, but he still took the opportunity to turn on the flashlight app that Liryn - the real Liryn had installed onto his senshi phone, the phone screen lighting up brightly–

And whilst it might not have been as strong as the flashlight that he'd dropped, it was still a light and was bright enough to be an illumination source.

He tucked it into his sash, for a moment, as tightly as he could manage - not wanting it to drop.

His shoulder felt sticky, was likely bleeding, but the thing wearing Liryn's face had mercifully withdrawn its claws as it flailled about.

He reached up for it, too slow to prevent the tail smacking him in the face, hands sinking to fur that even now felt so real - so familiar as Athene picked the flailing thing up.

"No I won't apologise" he told the thing and for a moment his voice trembled with hurt of his own, despite Athene’s efforts to try and hide it.

"You're right in that Liryn knows me better than most everyone else - but he would be the first to try and find the others - he wouldn’t abandon them."

He looked at the wriggling figure in his hands "And he would never break a promise to me."

He glanced into purplish eyes one last time as he continued "I'm not going to abandon the others either and nor am I going to abandon Alastor to its fate - I came here to try and help and I'm going to give it my best effort."

And then Athene let the 'not-Liryn' drop, a hand reaching down to retrieve his senshi phone from his sash as he backed away backwards.

"Ida?" he called and then quickly followed with "Selinur?" and then "Illyria?"

He thought he heard a voice answer, hand raising the senshi phone as he tried to stumble in the direction that he thought he heard it coming from "Ida is that you?"

Illyria, Mauvian

Illyria had gone back to lying down on the shelf. Her gaze kept travelling to the surface of the water that licked just below the bottom of the shelf that was her perch. There was absolutely nothing that would have her repeating a dip into the brackish liquid that seemed to smother anything it touched. The thing that had not been Ida had not resurfaced and the Mauvian was glad for that small blessing. While it tried to masquerade as her friend the young cat had almost been tempted to go along with it. But it hadn't been real and more than likely would have led her into a dangerous place. Instead she had resisted the siren call and with doing so - maybe weakened the hold that the chaos thing had held over her.

But the shadows still seemed to linger. Illyria watched the walls warily and hissed in a small show of defiance. They'd not take her, not yet.

For precious seconds did the tiny Mauvian stare down the walls before she felt as if something, or someone, was pouring energy into her. The sensation was a soothing one and she scrambled to all four paws before she meowed uncertainly. What was going on? She wasn't going to complain whatever was happening, but it was a little bit strange.

The mental association of Ida with this boost in energy had Illyria purring happily. If her friend was able to do this then surely she was okay. But where was she? Was there a correct path to go? Would it be better to wait for the others to regroup and join her? Even as Illyria paced the shelf's length once more did she attempt calling out to the others. "Ida? Selinur? Athene? Can anyone hear me?"

Illyria, Mauvian

For a moment everything was still in flux. The shadows still tried reaching for her, or so it seemed. The water still lapped at the base of her only safe port in this mess. Illyria had been thinking over options on what she could do safely to help out her group.

Then everything ... disappeared.

The shadows that seemed to stretch out tendrils of inky blackness no longer seemed to be alive. Their appearance had taken on what one would associate with an underground storage room, one of normalcy. The water, which had been too deep for a small Mauvian, and chest high, or higher for the others was back down at knee level. It made it much easier for her group to manoeuvre about, although she was still at a disadvantage. The last aspect of the illusion shattering was that she could finally see her comrades in this mission. Taking in the appearance of those familiar faces that had been hidden from sight had Illyria's mind spinning: Selinur, Athene, and Ida. They all seemed rattled and if they'd seen anything like she had, then she would not blame them. Then again how did she appear to them? Drenched all over ... looking like a drowned rat ... still trembling a little from her own little encounter.

For the moment she drank in the sight of the changed appearance that Ida sported with silent awe. When had this happened? Feeling as if she needed answers, but not at the moment, did Illyria give another, louder meowing to her group. "I think our way is clear now to destroy what we've come down here for. Let's end this..."

She could sense the chaos anomaly that was just beyond the room they were all currently. If it felt as weak as the fluctuations were now feeling than it wouldn't take much to destroy it.






(( I'm hoping it was okay to post again after Kyu's prompt, even if I'd posted just before it too. ))