As the thing broke apart, it became more of a struggle for Halle to focus on the main body. He did his best to stick to it, closing his own distance as they moved, the smaller shield on his arm ready to block for himself. Defending other people quickly turned into a less optimal route than simply moving the thing faster. Sometimes speedy offense was the best defense.
Seeing Kaifeng hit hard in the distance first took his attention off the creature for a long moment and then had Halle redoubling his efforts, the huge shield coming down faster and disappearing just as quickly. He could feel his pool of magic emptying out further, so each second had to count. Sometimes it did and others it was a waste of magic. He tried not to think too much in terms of regrets. That could wait for after.
Seeing Nectaris' tears as she made her way past nearly overset him again with the instinctive awkward horror of seeing someone cry. No, no there was nothing to do about that right now (or maybe ever). Focus. Focus!
They were almost there.
Everybody here was going to die and then he wouldn't be able to protect his family and then they were going to d-
Focus.
Squire: A simple wooden long shield shaped like a unicorn head Defensive magic: summons a 6'x 12' version of the wooden shield, while it only blocks magic and physical attacks from one direction, it is a physical manifestation that also blocks line of sight as to what's going on behind it. magic pool: 453530 15 seconds
There were voices calling his name. Familar and not--Kaifeng's for one, and for another, the Earth Knight whose Wonder this must be.
Helene's chest hurt. It was difficult to draw breath. He suspected the force of the blast must have damaged something--ribs, perhaps--and he would be paying for it once this was over. And Hy-Brasil was directing his attention to--
Kaifeng. Bleeding.
And Kaifeng wanted Helene to look at him, and though it took him a long moment to shake off the clinging weight of the Sidhe's terrible magic, Helene did lift his head, finally.
They were not alone. And Kaifeng was still alive. Helene had not failed Lianli yet, and for once, her would have the chance to help.
There was the warm scent of incense, the comfort of Hy-Brasil's magic. It shook off the clinging hold the Sidhe's dark touch had left on him, and it lessened the pain in his aching ribs, and Helene took a shuddering, stabilizing breath.
"I can carry you," Helene told Kaifeng. It would hurt. It would probably worsen his own injuries. But those could go by the wayside.
He made himself stand. Turned to the Cosmos Knight who had granted them the aid of his Summon, and gave a sharp nod. When the bird brought Kaifeng, he would be waiting to bring Kaifeng to the shore, to throw his magic at the creature and ensure that they drew it where it needed to be. That they cleansed this Wonder and made it safe again.
Encke had taken the general mode of pulling himself back a bit from powering up, in part because he knew the other people in his house had it handled. Things had been rough on him lately, tumbling through his brain in monstrous ways--often literal. He still powered up to go to his comet, and he still did base-level patrols of the neighbourhood because he could always feel those goddamn youma. Still, it was easier to be Basiluzzo's and Nectaris's hype squad and focus mostly on his soon-to-be-released new film.
Of course, there were still times when something caught him on patrol. This was one of those days, a distant call that he recognized as a pull even if he did not immediately respond.
Encke knew he should follow it. There was a part of his instinct that wanted to do anything but. There was a part of his diminished hope that wanted to just keep looking for that nearby youma and move on.
He couldn't just do that forever.
Encke closed his eyes and let the pull take him.
When he arrived, he opened his eyes to a push of people headed toward a beach. A beach, filled with -- fae? Was that what those were? A creature of some sort that wasn't supposed to be there, surrounded by knights, mostly, that looked like they had been through the wringer.
... Was that Nectaris over there? Hm.
Everyone looked ... distraught. Encke wasn't quite sure how punching things with plasma would really help matters, but perhaps he could do his best.
People were making their way to shore. Their little group included. Drombeg was clinging to her summons while Celadon, a solid rock herself in such a situation, assisted the Knight when needed. The crunch of stones under her boots was both relieving and worrying, because Hy knew she needed to take care of that fog. It was both beautiful and eerie to see it hang like a heavy curtain just past the point where the waves broke.
“I am going to need a bit of time.” She said to the group as people finally made their way down. The Sidhe a growing group at their backs another large concern. “I am not sure how the Sidhe will react when I start channeling magic to lift the veil of fog. It won’t take terribly long, but I’ll need a bit of uninterrupted time.” She chewed at her bottom lip in thought. “I am not sure how they’ll react? They may not care, but either way we are a tempting group to them.” Hy could practically feel the Sidhe upon her just thinking about them.
“We’re in the home stretch.” She gave them an encouraging smile. She was anxious, nervous, excited, and a mix of many other emotions. So close. She was so close to finally freeing the Wonder and herself from the Sidhe infliction.
A deep inhale. A slow exhale. “Alright.” She was pepping herself up as she placed her back to the water, boots only a few feet from where the water reached. Closing her eyes, Hy began to concentrate on her magic and the Wonder. As if it were a small vortex, the burner began to draw in whisps of fog from behind the Earth Knight. Slowly, the whisps grew larger and larger and quickly started coming from multiple directions until it all became a steady stream disappearing into the burner.
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Strickenized
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Meighei
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Noir Songbird
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Kolina
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Kolina
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:15 pm
Character: Big/Small Sidhe Doing: Moving to the shore and swarming
The Big sidhe soon became no more. It had separated back into the numerous smaller Sidhe that it had originated from. They didn’t care. There was nothing to care about except the fact that there were multiple living beings in front of them. The only deterrant was the sea that also lay ahead. Instincts told them the sea was a siren. A siren quieted by a blanket. But oh, how they wanted their prizes. And while the creatures had no real thinking capacity, they were creatures of greed and gluttony.
Their hesitation only lasted so long though. As soon as Hy-Brasil began channeling her magic, the creatures began to surge forward. As if they shared a hive-mind, the dozens of dark, ghost-like creatures swarmed the group.
Their touch may not physically hurt, but oh how the mind was affected. The Sidhe seemed to thrive over each bit of contact they made with any of the persons on the island. And with each touch the darkness of the victims minds only grew.
Everyone on the shore is being swarmed by the Sidhe. Roll 5 4-sided dice. Every even number rolled is contact your character has with a Sidhe. There is no physical damage but each touch is a mental attack.
Kaifeng, Squire of Saturn Action: taking a bird over to Helene, letting Helene carry him to the shore, then summoning ghosties to either distract or attack the sidhe, whichever works. Damage: emotional damage x1
For a brief, glimmering moment as he watched an enormous bird and clearly magical bird fly toward him, all Kaifeng could think was, Oh, I gotta get me one of those.…
The bird was gorgeous, and apparently had some kind of bond with the Cosmos Knight who’d called her forth. Was this something that all Knights could do, then? Kaifeng would need to do more work with his Wonder, wouldn’t he? Sure, he made time for it as often as he could make the journey, but he’d probably need to do more if he wanted to bond with a creature as fantastic as the bird offering him its wings.
Hearing the other Knight’s words, though, snapped Kaifeng back out of that fascination and into the moment. Pulling himself up was not the easiest thing he’d ever done, but with the magical bird’s assistance, he managed to get off the ground and onto its back. As the bird rushed him over toward Helene, Kaifeng gently patted its feathers. Not that it could see him smiling at the moment, but he smiled gratefully regardless. “Thank you for all your help,” he told the bird, readying himself to slip off into Helene’s waiting arms. “I appreciate the kindness very much.”
With which, Kaifeng pushed himself off and tumbled down to where Helene waited for him, He sort of wished that he could’ve expressed that thanks to the Cosmos Knight’s bird with more than words and a gentle pat, but everyone had more work to do. Indeed, he didn’t really have time for what he did when Helene caught him—but regardless, Kaifeng leaned up and pressed a quick kiss to Helene’s forehead.
“Huan-ge’s very brave,” Kaifeng told him gently, nestling against Helene’s chest. “I’m lucky to have him in my life.”
Had there been time, Kaifeng would have gladly tended to Helene and whatever emotional damage the Chaos creatures had caused. Alas, they couldn’t dally with such things for too long. They had to get a move on, down to the shore. As they got closer, Kaifeng readied his weapon and tried to assess the situation.… One of the Chaos monsters swiped at him, but Kaifeng forced himself to focus on what the jiejie who protected this Wonder had said: these monsters made people feel things that weren’t real, so the emotions that rushed up from the swipe at his ankle were only in his head.
“We need some distance from the others—especially Earth Knight-jiejie, she looks busy? But with some distance, hopefully my ghosts won’t go after them,” he said, half thinking out loud and half making suggestions for where Helene ought to carry him. “Something in the middle? Of the three different monsters, I mean? And close to the water, or maybe wading out into it a little?”
Kaifeng had never tried to use his magic anywhere but dry land before, but he guessed there was a first time for everything. When Helene got them to a good place, Kaifeng took a deep breath to focus himself. He allowed himself to feel the weight of the signet ring on his right hand, to think about his Wonder and its power and his role as its sworn protector.
“Apologies in advance to Huan-ge,” he whispered, knowing that his shades only really held off from attacking Kaifeng himself. “Just remember, whatever they make you feel? It’s not real.”
Just like the Chaos monsters on Earth Knight-jiejie’s Wonder.
Then, calling out to his fields and the souls interred within them for their aid, Kaifeng swung his weapon and summoned up his magic.
Quote:
Squire Magic: Ghostly shades claw their way out of the ground within a six-foot radius of Kāifēng. Anyone within the six-foot radius—including allies and Kāifēng himself—will feel a sense of recognition, like they should know who these dead people are, but the shades appear too mangled by death and decay to be recognizable as any particular person. The shades will attack anyone in the six-foot radius but Kāifēng, including allies, but being incorporeal, they do no physical damage. For the duration of his channeling, anyone hit by one of his shades will feel deathly chills and a heavy feeling of being watched. The chills stop as soon as he stops channeling; any lingering emotional effects (from the magic or seeing the shades) are up to individual players!
Kāifēng can channel his magic for up to 30 seconds at this stage.
Meigheix
Thank you for the ride, Erytheia! Kaifeng likes your bird emotion_bigheart
Character:Knight Nectaris Doing: Trying to usher the Sidhe into the sea the best she can, considering. Crying. Damage: Minor, Minor, Moderate, Serious, Moderate
The giant ghost monster wasn't nearly so giant now, and the little shades that were left over were mostly on the beach, almost in the water. They were making progress. That was what the Earth Knight was saying, and Nectaris tried to hang on to that, to dig into that optimism that was her whole thing and think about how pretty Hy-Brasil was, how strong and confident she was holding her staff and helping to tell the others how to herd the ghosts away.
She tried to think that way about the others, too. It was strangers she was fighting side by side with, it was true, but she did what she usually did and pushed the bad, sad thoughts to somewhere deep under her chest and instead tried to think about how she was still committed to these people, how she'd promised to help them, how they seemed cool. It worked, at first.
She brought up her moon staff and held it out at an angle so the sidhe couldn't get past. She stepped forwards and swung it, working them back towards the water. When the first tendril struck her arm, she felt the sob coming up in her throat, but she bit down hard and instead though about how cute the Saturn squire and the alien senshi next to her looked, trying to protect each other. When the second one hit, she thought about the other knights who were next to her, the page who looked like Cybele, and the boy in blue. She thought about how she wanted to be their friends, how she wanted to learn their names, and learn about their worlds.
The third sidhe was bigger, and she didn't see it coming. When it hit her in the throat, she couldn't pretend that the rest mattered anymore.
She was stupid. She'd was so stupid that she'd gotten tricked into something bad for years. She'd even killed people. She'd corrupted them. She was so stupid that she couldn't even stop anyone else from killing, and being evil.
When she tried to do other stuff to redeem herself, what actually ended up happening was that she ended up crying on a beach.
She thought she saw a familiar purple out of the corner of her eye. She turned around. Oh. Encke.
She didn't even notice the sidhe that passed completely through her form
He was the kind of person who could help with something like this, if only she wasn't here getting in the way. If he saw her, he might go out of his way to try to help her, instead of fighting the ghosts or actually using his magic on something that would make things better. She was a liability, but she couldn't help it. Her knees were going weak under her. She collapsed into the sand, the waves lapping at the edge of her skirt and she sidhe continued to swarm and swarm.
She looked away, and hoped he wouldn't notice.
He didn't need to waste his time on her right now. He didn't need to waste his time on her later, either, if they did win the fight here. She was wasting space in his house, wasting his time with her crying, and it was useless to try to convince him that she wasn't stupid for trying to save people with love and friendship.
She was stupid. Who would ever care about her? She was useless. She was just like the spirits here. She was a hassle, and an emotional drain.
It would be better if she didn't exist. It would be better if she went with them.
Character: Erytheia of Cosmos Doing: Crying on the beach and lost in his own world now Damage: Hit - Emotional Damage x4
One Sidhe struck at the knight and he blocked it with his bow, holding it tight as a staff. Everything would be fine.
But the Sidhe’s limbs wrapped around his weapon like dark tendrils, ripping it from his hands just as a mass of others intended to do to his resolve.
Four shadows, each attached to a Sidhe, took advantage of his weaponless state, each picking one of his own limbs to target. One wrapped around his left wrist, another entangled his right. Then two more snaked around his ankles.
It would appear that he was physically retrained, but that wasn’t true. If only he’d move, just one foot forward… he would be freed.
One.
Erytheia had led himself to complacency.
With all well on your own world, you rested and enjoyed your little life on Earth. You bid your world farewell, content that it was safe and sound. To hell with any others that needed aid. Your wonder was more than safe. Cosmos herself had even come and congratulated you. The Code had granted its approval by lighting the beacon. Erytheia itself had gifted you with transcendence in approval. To Hell with any other world. Yours was fine, it might as well condemn the rest to burn.
Two.
Erytheia had left his one and only companion to fate.
Where was Tama? You had stopped looking. If you stop looking, they might as well not be there, right? You can’t feel pain if you just give up, right? Tell yourself they had a quiet and painless death. Don’t find out what really happened.
Three.
Erytheia had abandoned his family in their time of need.
And what of your little sister? She’s a youma, right? She’s a monster. You search in the night for her, but why? So you can slay her by your own hand? You know there is nothing you can do for her. Just mercy in a quick death is better that what you could ever hope to do.
Four.
Erytheia had no way to help other knights, or even himself.
What good is all that power? You’ve transcended, but for what? You can’t be corrupted now. But what about everyone else. They are no less vulnerable because of you. You are no better able to help them now than before. All you can do is heal damage that’s already been dealt. What good is coddling the pain when you couldn’t prevent it in the first place?
“I’m so, so sorry…”
Erytheia was on his knees on the beach, tears pouring down his checks. Who he was talking to was unknown. No one but the Sidhe was next to him.
He looked forward, ever forward to the sea, but he saw nothing but darkness before him.
Character: Celadon, Page of Cybele Doing: Giving up and giving a hug instead Damage: Serious, moderate, minor, moderate, graze (all mental) (rolls are in above post)
She had a sword now, loaned to her by Drombeg. Drombeg had a steed now, loaned to him by Hy-Brasil. Hy-Brasil had a job to do and a plan to finalize. The fog had to be lifted. The Sidhe had to be pushed out to sea like so many worries to be left behind.
Celadon knew she wasn't being asked to do anything great. There wasn't supposed to be any steep challenge to menacing things towards the sea. Her only job was to hold her ground and swing a sword at them. They weren't even people, whatever they were. Just energy given form. They were even less of a real thing than youma, hardly more than figments of the imagination. Whatever her thoughts, they didn't matter; she just had to step forward and swing the sword that she was given.
For a while, that worked. With each step, the couple Sidhe in front of her moved backwards. Even though they were energy, they must not have liked the feeling of a blade passing through them. Maybe they remembered having corporeal form. Maybe they remembered the bite of a weapon. That wasn't for Celadon to ponder.
But ponder it she did. She couldn't help herself. She grew up a curious, thoughtful girl. But to her undisputed disadvantage, that curiosity and thoughtfulness was easily manipulated.
She didn't feel the Sidhe swing a tentacle at her back. She thought about how ridiculous this must have looked. An assortment of people dressed in fantasy clothes, swinging weapons at things they couldn't actually hit. Those things, the collections of energy, dodging to and fro as if those weapon attacks really mattered. Like they were humoring the would-be warriors, just dancing along to some sort of rehearsal to which only they were privy. Maybe that was so. Maybe this was all an exercise in futility and they were invited along to feel like their part in the play mattered.
But Celadon knew her part didn't matter. That she was only a threat to them because of a sword that wasn't hers. She was just a Page, laughed at by the girl on the bench and taunted by Negaverse agents past. Attacked and unable to defend herself. Still recovering from an arrow she couldn't dodge and a girl with magic who drove it further into her thigh. She was bound to die in this mess because she was powerless, because she had naught to say that she was a threat but a borrowed sword that would soon go back to its owner.
So she stopped swinging. The next Sidhe hit her, then the next, then the next. She never felt a thing. She let the futility of it all wash over her.
None of this would matter. Maybe Hy-Brasil would succeed, maybe she wouldn't, but she never needed them here in the first place. They were props. They were distractions.
Maybe she'd die here. Then she would rejoin her best friend, whose death she never solved. Maybe the Sidhe would push her out to sea, and her sacrifice would be readily forgotten by all. She'd rather die if her choices meant nothing, if her actions didn't matter. That was the kinder fate. She wished for it. She wished for it —
But she didn't wish it on others. So when the girl in pink collapsed onto her knees, crying, it was a bleak clarion call. A warning and an assurance that she wasn't alone in feeling like this. And maybe her actions didn't matter to the Sidhe, or to whatever Hy-Brasil had to do to lift the fog, but it might just mean something to the girl in the butterfly cape. Might grant her a little hope.
With the Sidhe passing their bodies through hers, she forced herself to walk. She did not swing her sword at them, nor chase them away. She had only the energy left in her bones to make the few steps toward the girl on the shore, each step more leaden and stiff than the last. Within a few feet of this stranger that she never met, Celadon dropped the sword. It didn't matter; it wouldn't help. When she got close enough, she dropped to her knees too, and wrapped her arms around the girl's trembling shoulders.
Character:Transcended Eternal Encke Doing: well. summoned his passive in an attempt to discourage the sidhe. ready to cast if called. Damage: Severe, Graze, Minor, Severe, Severe
Encke did, to some degree, get a warning.
He had a visual view of everyone else when he arrived. Some of their faces looked tear-stained, and others looked strained. He was a long-term veteran of this bullshit war. Chaos had a way of ******** with the mind, and he knew that. A creature of chaos or whatever was on this wonder could easily do the same. He knew that. He knew that.
He faced Hy-Brasil as she prepared to block the creatures and purge them. Only a bit of time, even as they separated and surged. Encke could handle this.
Encke could handle this.
He told himself that as a sidhe charged him and did not touch him but ran through him entirely. It left an odd chill on his skin but did not affect him beyond that. What it did affect was what he had seen when he had come and what he knew he could have to guard himself against. He felt it. He felt the reasons why he had pulled back. He felt the reasons why acting felt like what he had to do right now, the interviews, the smiles, the attempts at niceties as he forced himself to be present in that moment.
He felt what he knew was false but what he also knew to be true.
He had tried to purify someone. He had. The graze of another sidhe reminded him of that as he rose his static field in an attempt at self-defense. It did seem to do the job; another charged him directly but vanished once it ran through him. But did it matter?
When the Negaverse could simply take people and turn them into monsters, what did it matter? When it could take someone who was dying and raise them to a higher power, what did it matter? When the entire world was overtaken by what he had been trying to fight for almost fifteen years, what did it matter? It was strange, to stand there on the precipice, to know that his mind was simply feeding him what these monsters wanted him to hear. They wanted him to give up, and oftentimes, he did want to give up. As another ran through him, he felt that like a ******** knife twisting deep under the surface and reemerging with a face that was taunting him.
His hands were green. He hungered.
What had he done? What had these years accomplished beyond an endless unyielding cycle with no real exit? People still died. He still desperately chased starseeds and energy. It never stopped. It never stopped.
Something screamed to give in. Perhaps it was the sidhe. Perhaps it was his mind. He didn't know, and he desperately clawed to pull himself beyond it. Encke instinctively thumbed around in his subspace pocket and pulled out a small bottle. Would lorazepam do anything against a monstrous magical push?
He needed something. Anything. Encke thumbed the pill bottle, popped the single pill inside it, and vanished it away.
He saw the way Nectaris fell to her knees and saw another go to her. He saw a Cosmos knight fall to his knees. He knew that Hy-Brasil had seemed on her last leg when she had found him.
Could Encke hear him in this mire? It had heard him during the ambush. He brought the comet to the center of his mind and attempted to breathe around it. His hands were warped.
The last of Halle's mana pool was used up, and while it wasn't the first time he'd experienced that, it was the first time in an actual battle and not simply testing the boundaries of his magic. He couldn't help the swell of fear that followed, even as the sidhe melted away into its multitudes. The swarm was large and ominous in a very different way, but as he rushed forward top the shore to join the rest, he could see the mental attacks hadn't ceased at all. If anything they redoubled.
He felt a cold, awful hand brush the back of his neck and for a moment, clear as day, Halle could swear he saw Almere in the middle of things, looking at the castle in the distance and heedless of the shadowy body reaching for her and then...
Nothing.
"ALMERE?!" Halle shouted, just in case it wasn't an illusion. Aggressively he batted away seeking hands and flailing limbs with the shield on his arm, making his way to...
Nothing.
Halle felt he was going insane, and there was nothing he could do with that feeling except fight. And fight. Until he drowned or they did.
