Yeah, apologies for being slow on this one. Have been having internet connection issues since Sunday, but luckily it's all sorted now so I should have a post whipped up soon. Again, sorry for keeping people waiting.
Sonnambula Member
Stealer of Girls
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She was already gone. That much became clear even before Akiko came to burst any sort of bubble he might've had left about Riku's chances of survival. Obviously she wasn't going to be gone forever, he knew that. But holding the lifeless body of a friend is holding the lifeless body of a friend, no matter which way you slice it. For a little while he was inconsolable, violet eyes blankly staring into the fallen girl's face. He cared little for the battle between Kanbaru and Nephy raging on some distance away, he cared little for Akiko coming towards him, the words she spoke to him, in fact he barely reacted as she took Riku from his very grasp and carried her away. And he cared little for the world as it fell to pieces around him and everyone else who'd found themselves in this forsaken place.
What broke him out of this trance of pure apathy was a premonition, a sickening aura of pure anger only a stone’s throw away from the boy, as Akiko stood threateningly above Riku’s body, her mind in a world of its own, a foot hovering above the dead girl’s chest with grievous intent. Had Thomas felt as unstable as he had been hours before, he probably would've engaged in battle with Akiko then and there. His eyes glistened with a golden hue as he let himself slip. It would only be for a moment though, and it was the bard’s hesitation and subsequent retraction of that aggressive position her foot held that forced the boy to hold himself back similarly, his eyes reverting to their usual violet tone.
Try as he might though, the boy couldn't yet manage to fully conceal nor control the feelings that festered deep within him. It could be seen in his face and his eyes, usually vivid they now looked dark and sunken, reflecting his conscience whether he liked it or not. And Akiko’s casual insulting of his friend certainly didn’t help. In fact even as the girl lifted the fallen princess onto her back, he could feel tension and anger seeping into his heart like black tar. He was tempted to snatch Riku’s body away from her for a moment, but it seemed that whatever violent animosity the boy had sensed from the girl before had seemingly dissipated for now and so, owing to his better judgement, he decided to leave it at that.
Even so, Akiko got no response from the boy other than a glance of disdain, before Thomas turned on his heels to make his way over to Kanbaru and Nephy. He didn't even wait for her to finish before he did.
The battle between whale and wolf had ended in a pretty decisive victory for the former, and though the boy would usually be full of awe for the scene in front of him, Kanbaru standing with a curious looking sword of some sort a short distance from the kneeling Nephy, instead his countenance was painted with a look of disinterest. He was about to call out to Kanbaru and wave her over so the two could regroup with Akiko, but something stopped him. It was like he'd suddenly become mute, words refusing to sound from his mouth no matter how much he worked his lips and tongue. His hearing dropped as well, and suddenly even the rumbling of the Abyss falling to pieces around him became nothing more than a low, ambient groan as room was made for something else to fill his ears. A voice, and a familiar one at that.
"She killed her, you know... She was just trying to help, but she showed no mercy."
Like poison those words filled Thomas' mind, echoing and banging against the inside of his skull, forcing him to hold his head in an effort to comfort the splitting headache that resulted from it. There was no figure to accompany the voice this time, but his imagination did the work for him, conjuring the same image of the man he'd seen before. The man with violet eyes.
"You know what to do... you know what you can do... use them. Use them and kill her. She deserves to die."
At this point, Thomas felt that he wasn't in control anymore. It was like before, but this time was different. This time was worse. He couldn’t cry out in defiance of that voice, he couldn’t call for help. Then again though, was there anyone present who would help him regardless? Through no action of his own, the boy's vision turned to the crouching Nephy, focussing in on her until she was all he could see. All the while, he could sense the emotions he'd tried so strongly to supress now bubbling to the surface, even his anger towards Akiko playing a part in the boy's steady descent into losing himself for a second time. Now his eyes glowed with that raging golden hue once again, even more than ever before, flashing back and forth between it and composed violet as the internal struggle for control began once again.
"Be the vessel you were made to be... become the heir you are meant to be. For those with violet eyes, are cursed to descend into darkness.”
But this time the winner was as clear cut as the arrow wound on Riku’s back. Any shred of hope or positivity the boy had retained or held onto since his previous battle with Nephy was shredded, replaced with such burning anger and hatred that the boy felt it like flame beneath his skin. He let out a guttural, anguished, predatory cry as a shroud of darkness wove its way around him, a void-black aura that shimmered and flickered about his person. That veil of shadow was contrasted by the piercing glow of his eyes. Those Gold Eyes. They honed in now on Nephy like a wild animal targeting its prey, and it this point it was clear that Thomas was gone. Consumed by the influence of overwhelming emotion and unseen forces until he’d become a distortion of himself.
There were no words that followed, no hesitation. In an instant Thomas had flickered to Nephy’s side in a trail of darkness with immense speed, emerging with his shadow-cloaked sword already drawn. He pierced forward in an almighty strike, intending to skewer the wolf through the chest and end her pitiful existence then and there.
I've edited my post, should move things along a bit more.
There was clear elation on Nessie's face as the cloaked Pageless' agonised cry rang out through the sky-turned-battlefield, though despite that she couldn't help but feel a chill run up her spine in a primal reaction to the spectral scream. It was other-worldly, wholly irregular and with such hatred and thirst for revenge behind it. The young witch could almost feel its claws resting on her shoulder from behind, ready to spitefully slice through her as soon as she looked at them. It was just a trick of the mind though, of course it was, playing on her paranoia and making the air around her just feel a little colder.
Lumiere's words however, laced with an icy disgust of the shrieking monster, returned to the Lady of the Lake that sense of courage she had felt before when taking it on directly. And now that she'd had a closer look at it, its wounded form made it seem far less imposing than it had initially. Its cloak torn and peppered with holes from musket balls and its vulnerable heart pierced with those fine needles of rain, like miniature daggers embedded in flesh. But a wounded creature that knows it has nothing to lose, that knows its time is almost up, has the potential to be far more dangerous than it ever could have been previously.
This was something Nessie would quickly realise as the Pageless made a sharp break for the leader of the group, tossing out dazzling lights that forced the young redhead to shut her eyes so tightly that she started seeing colours.
"Lucette!"
Nessie cried out in concern for her friend, blinking open her eyes until her vision cleared of the obtrusive flashing colours that had resulted from the desperate phantom's assault. But, upon seeing the result of said assault, the girl realised there had really been nothing to worry about. She watched in awe as, calm and composed, the leader of the quartet of Magical Girls spoke a few damning words to the captured Pageless, before bringing the caged creature over to her, Goodhope and Olivia. There, its judgement would be decided, if it hadn't been already.
"Well, we can't communicate with it? Can we?" Though she was more than happy to assist in destroying the Pageless, after all it had rudely knocked her off her broom and tried to kill her friends as well, but she couldn't deny to herself that, if possible, it could be useful to speak with it in some way. She peered closely at their frozen foe in its prison, curiously studying it now that it was immobile. That being said, a momentary silence from her comrades was more than enough for the redhead to assume that such reasoning was impossible.
"Let's just whack the bastard, give 'im hell."
Nessie concluded, as the rain which poured around her now formed into something far larger than a needle, though with the same keen, piercing sharpness to it. As droplets swirled into place, the shape became more defined until the form of transparent, so in this case grey, spear was created. Perhaps influenced by Lumiere's solemn disposition, as well as a desire to just get the whole affair over with, there was no hesitation from the Lady of the Lake as she flung the spear right at the creature's exposed heart in an attempt to finish things there and then. Whether the others would join her in the effort was up to them.
Lumiere's words however, laced with an icy disgust of the shrieking monster, returned to the Lady of the Lake that sense of courage she had felt before when taking it on directly. And now that she'd had a closer look at it, its wounded form made it seem far less imposing than it had initially. Its cloak torn and peppered with holes from musket balls and its vulnerable heart pierced with those fine needles of rain, like miniature daggers embedded in flesh. But a wounded creature that knows it has nothing to lose, that knows its time is almost up, has the potential to be far more dangerous than it ever could have been previously.
This was something Nessie would quickly realise as the Pageless made a sharp break for the leader of the group, tossing out dazzling lights that forced the young redhead to shut her eyes so tightly that she started seeing colours.
"Lucette!"
Nessie cried out in concern for her friend, blinking open her eyes until her vision cleared of the obtrusive flashing colours that had resulted from the desperate phantom's assault. But, upon seeing the result of said assault, the girl realised there had really been nothing to worry about. She watched in awe as, calm and composed, the leader of the quartet of Magical Girls spoke a few damning words to the captured Pageless, before bringing the caged creature over to her, Goodhope and Olivia. There, its judgement would be decided, if it hadn't been already.
"Well, we can't communicate with it? Can we?" Though she was more than happy to assist in destroying the Pageless, after all it had rudely knocked her off her broom and tried to kill her friends as well, but she couldn't deny to herself that, if possible, it could be useful to speak with it in some way. She peered closely at their frozen foe in its prison, curiously studying it now that it was immobile. That being said, a momentary silence from her comrades was more than enough for the redhead to assume that such reasoning was impossible.
"Let's just whack the bastard, give 'im hell."
Nessie concluded, as the rain which poured around her now formed into something far larger than a needle, though with the same keen, piercing sharpness to it. As droplets swirled into place, the shape became more defined until the form of transparent, so in this case grey, spear was created. Perhaps influenced by Lumiere's solemn disposition, as well as a desire to just get the whole affair over with, there was no hesitation from the Lady of the Lake as she flung the spear right at the creature's exposed heart in an attempt to finish things there and then. Whether the others would join her in the effort was up to them.
It was a scream that forced Thomas back into consciousness, his head suddenly raising from the jagged, rocky bed it had landed on. And boy had he landed hard. An aching, throbbing pain cried and begged for release within his skull from the impact he'd had, and somewhere along the way he'd gained a large gash above his left eye, a stream of blood steadily pouring from it that forced him to keep that eye shut most of the time, unless he wanted it to start stinging like hell too.
He wasn't sure how it had happened, or how long it had been now since it happened, but it was clear to the boy that somewhere along the way he'd been flung off of Katie's back. Presumably before he could reach her head.
Thomas steadily raised himself up, supporting himself with various pieces of fallen debris as he gauged his surroundings. And, though perhaps just about recognisable, it was clear he'd missed some stuff. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly and indeed noticeably, Katie was gone. Or at least, her dragon form was. And secondly, was the sheer amount of destruction that had taken place in his absence. It was a wonder to the boy that he hadn't been crushed by falling rock in his state of vulnerability, or that he hadn't been completely scorched to a crisp by the raging flames that licked up aggressively from just about everywhere around him.
Before Thomas could even move to regroup with his teammates though, an almighty quake sent him right back down to the ground almost as suddenly as he'd awoken before even more debris fell around him as a result. By now the boy was shaking, uncertain, paranoid, even fearful. It was just one thing after another. But nonetheless he stood back up with a sigh, before groaning as some blood seeped into his eye despite his best efforts, and began to move. With a crash that sheer in scale, it didn't take him too long to figure out what probably caused it, or rather who caused it. And so, he'd try and make his way towards it and probably find the others along the way. And that's when he saw Riku.
It was odd that he was seeing her like this again in a fairly similar context to when he'd seen her like this last. But the reaction he had was completely different. And even the knowledge that she would most likely resurrect herself again even if the worst was to pass did little, if anything, to comfort him.
"Riku!"
A desperate cry echoed through the fractured chasm as the boy rushed to his friend's side, violet eyes fraught with concern and fear for her safety as he assessed her condition. With a gentle shove he got Riku on her side, letting the blood coming up from her mouth steadily pour out onto the ground instead of back down her throat. But at this point, the boy wasn't sure how much his efforts would be worth.
"Kanbaru, Akiko!"
He called out to his fellow group members, scanning wide-eyed over the surrounding flames and debris to try and catch sight of them, before turning back to the fallen princess.
"Hey, come on Riku, say something. Y-you can just come back, right? You'll be ok?"
Thomas began to sound breathless, his voice filled with panic as he held on tight to his bleeding friend.
Despite the severity Nessie had perceived of the prior situation, it came off as a minor inconvenience and delay once she regrouped with the rest of the team. Perhaps it was just something you got used to over time as a Magical Girl, being unfazed by assaults and perilous situations. It seemed feasible, but that didn't mean the young redhead became any calmer. Even if she was back with her friends. She couldn't help but feel on edge.
Lumiere's words of explanation to the Scot were lost on her ears to the heavy rain and bustling wind around them, but also due to a lack of attention on Nessie's part. The girl's focus was on those eyes as they got closer, her face contorted with suspicion. She glared at those static orbs, keen pupils discerning that something was wrong. Even so, she wasn't able to discern what exactly was wrong until it was obvious. An illusion. That's all they'd been. An illusion.
Nessie stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she realised, kicking herself for not coming to that conclusion sooner. Ironically those eyes, though clearly deforming into a passive collection of bright specks on the wind, seemed a dozen times more ominous now. Because it came with the realisation that they'd been tricked. And now whatever puppetmaster was pulling the strings would see to it that the four of them met consequences for it.
This is where Nessie's paranoia came in handy, since it was her who was chosen first by the illusionist Pageless. A clawed hand swept at the young lady out of nowhere, but at a speed that was more than manageable for her to avoid, rotating around with a swish on her broom, which took some of the attack in lieu of her. The hand drew away slowly, slow enough for Nessie's eyes to flit up to the creature it belonged to. Perhaps it was just the wind, but a cold shiver ran up her spine as her gaze settled on the spectral force floating effortlessly on the wind. It drifted there, garbed with a long, flowing cloak that gave it some form other than what was presumably its heart, or some kind of source of energy for it, resting open but protected at its lower half. Its bony arms, now resting unnervingly at either sides, almost seemed to sprout from the cloak itself. Its pitch dark shade almost seemed to evoke utter despair. Though, given it was a Pageless, that was sort of to be expected.
And then, in a blink of an eye, it was gone. The darkness of the surrounding storm made for an excellent cover, and Nessie barely even saw it at Goodhope's side until Lumiere's radiant shield burst forth to block it. Barely able to keep up with the pace of the battle now, it was no wonder that the Lady of the Lake found herself targeted once again next. Dazzled by the mini-fireworks display that rippled amongst the Magical Girl quartet, all that gave Nessie away to the fact that she was in danger was the sudden aura of dread that the Pageless brought with it, those claws ready to drive into vulnerable flesh before, yet again, Lumiere's barrier intercepted it like the workings of a guardian angel. Being the kind of person she was, however, Nessie wasn't going to take protection just sitting down.
"Not so fast ya tatty bastard!"
A couple of blinks was all it took for the girl to regain her senses, the fuzzy blotches in her vision clearing up as she spun around to the cloaked Pageless before it could retreat back into its camouflage for respite. Fixing her eyes on that glowing heart at its bottom, she thrust forward her hand forcefully. Like it had previously, the rain came loyally to assist the Lady of the Lake, a mass of individual droplets and streams ignoring the logic that usually controlled them, forming into a barrage of razor sharp needles which were sent straight in the Pageless' direction.
"Aye!"
Nessie let out an affirmative cry to Lumiere's words in the heat of the moment. Now the battle had really begun.
Lumiere's words of explanation to the Scot were lost on her ears to the heavy rain and bustling wind around them, but also due to a lack of attention on Nessie's part. The girl's focus was on those eyes as they got closer, her face contorted with suspicion. She glared at those static orbs, keen pupils discerning that something was wrong. Even so, she wasn't able to discern what exactly was wrong until it was obvious. An illusion. That's all they'd been. An illusion.
Nessie stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she realised, kicking herself for not coming to that conclusion sooner. Ironically those eyes, though clearly deforming into a passive collection of bright specks on the wind, seemed a dozen times more ominous now. Because it came with the realisation that they'd been tricked. And now whatever puppetmaster was pulling the strings would see to it that the four of them met consequences for it.
This is where Nessie's paranoia came in handy, since it was her who was chosen first by the illusionist Pageless. A clawed hand swept at the young lady out of nowhere, but at a speed that was more than manageable for her to avoid, rotating around with a swish on her broom, which took some of the attack in lieu of her. The hand drew away slowly, slow enough for Nessie's eyes to flit up to the creature it belonged to. Perhaps it was just the wind, but a cold shiver ran up her spine as her gaze settled on the spectral force floating effortlessly on the wind. It drifted there, garbed with a long, flowing cloak that gave it some form other than what was presumably its heart, or some kind of source of energy for it, resting open but protected at its lower half. Its bony arms, now resting unnervingly at either sides, almost seemed to sprout from the cloak itself. Its pitch dark shade almost seemed to evoke utter despair. Though, given it was a Pageless, that was sort of to be expected.
And then, in a blink of an eye, it was gone. The darkness of the surrounding storm made for an excellent cover, and Nessie barely even saw it at Goodhope's side until Lumiere's radiant shield burst forth to block it. Barely able to keep up with the pace of the battle now, it was no wonder that the Lady of the Lake found herself targeted once again next. Dazzled by the mini-fireworks display that rippled amongst the Magical Girl quartet, all that gave Nessie away to the fact that she was in danger was the sudden aura of dread that the Pageless brought with it, those claws ready to drive into vulnerable flesh before, yet again, Lumiere's barrier intercepted it like the workings of a guardian angel. Being the kind of person she was, however, Nessie wasn't going to take protection just sitting down.
"Not so fast ya tatty bastard!"
A couple of blinks was all it took for the girl to regain her senses, the fuzzy blotches in her vision clearing up as she spun around to the cloaked Pageless before it could retreat back into its camouflage for respite. Fixing her eyes on that glowing heart at its bottom, she thrust forward her hand forcefully. Like it had previously, the rain came loyally to assist the Lady of the Lake, a mass of individual droplets and streams ignoring the logic that usually controlled them, forming into a barrage of razor sharp needles which were sent straight in the Pageless' direction.
"Aye!"
Nessie let out an affirmative cry to Lumiere's words in the heat of the moment. Now the battle had really begun.
"An oath? I swear to... do whatever it takes to be the best the best Magical Girl I can, I guess! And whatever it was that guy in Braveheart said."
Nessie's oath was the one that came last, and despite her joke at the end she immediately felt the difference, a familiar warm feeling filling the girl as the Captain's power flowed through once more. It certainly gave her the confidence to spur onwards, despite the weather. After all, she'd seen and gone through harsher storms in her homeland. The only difference now was the towering beast, or beasts, that threatened the very livelihoods of all those in the area. Plus maybe the funny outfits.
Even before Goodhope's decision was made, Nessie was already settling herself down on the end of her broomstick, gripping it tightly while inwardly giggling about the number of euphemisms that inevitably came to her mind relating to it. It seemed a strange circumstance to be having those sorts of thoughts floating around, but the mind works in funny ways. Or Nessie's certainly did, at least. There was no hinderance though, no wasting time or hesitating, and along with her colleagues and friends the young Scot soon found herself in the air after a forceful kick off the ground.
Wilhelmina's decision to tag along with Olivia and Xolys was probably the better of the two, something that became apparent to Nessie as her own lack of experience was shown quite clearly in her riding of her broomstick. It wasn't horrible... it wasn't great either. Just unpolished. Maybe slightly worse than that. But it was competent enough so that she could just about keep up, with Lumière's radiant wings acting as a good beacon for her to aim towards. Her focus on her flying, however, meant that the redhead was completely unprepared for what would come next.
She caught it out of the corner of her eye: the invisible impact hitting Wilhelmina with such force that she was thrown right back down towards the soggy earth. Nessie, though, barely saw any of this, let alone the events that followed, as she too was hit by a gust, no, a burst of wind-like energy that caught her off guard enough for her to be knocked completely off of her broom. And with her hands and the broomstick itself being so slippery from the rain, there was no holding on for dear life this time. Instead, the girl found herself plummeting right back down towards the ground, from a height that would surely prove fatal to her, her allies shrinking in her vision as those yellow as continued to loom large over all of them. And then, stillness.
But not the stillness of death, absolutely not. Nessie could tell that immediately by the rain still tumbling over her face and the rest of her body. No, this was the stillness of being halted gently. Of being caught. And so she had. Whether intentional or not, the rain had bent itself to Nessie's desire, her very thoughts and her will. Droplets had fused together, disobeying the laws of science that governed them to form a dense bed of water that held the Magical Girl like a child in a cot, for enough time so that her broomstick could find its way to her, before dispersing and showering down onto the muddy earth below.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!"
Nessie cried out through the vicious storm, waving to and reassuring her companions while she hastily flew back up to meet them.
"Fuckin' hell that better not happen again..." Came a grumbled mutter to herself, her relief turning to anger directed at the thing that assaulted her in the first place, her own glaring eyes staring piercingly at the equally unyielding eyes of the Pageless that stared back, flickering mysteriously in a way the girl couldn't figure out. It unnerved her.
"What's going on...?"
Nessie turned to Lumière, realising that she was still a little out of her depth here. What a first patrol this was turning out to be...
Nessie's oath was the one that came last, and despite her joke at the end she immediately felt the difference, a familiar warm feeling filling the girl as the Captain's power flowed through once more. It certainly gave her the confidence to spur onwards, despite the weather. After all, she'd seen and gone through harsher storms in her homeland. The only difference now was the towering beast, or beasts, that threatened the very livelihoods of all those in the area. Plus maybe the funny outfits.
Even before Goodhope's decision was made, Nessie was already settling herself down on the end of her broomstick, gripping it tightly while inwardly giggling about the number of euphemisms that inevitably came to her mind relating to it. It seemed a strange circumstance to be having those sorts of thoughts floating around, but the mind works in funny ways. Or Nessie's certainly did, at least. There was no hinderance though, no wasting time or hesitating, and along with her colleagues and friends the young Scot soon found herself in the air after a forceful kick off the ground.
Wilhelmina's decision to tag along with Olivia and Xolys was probably the better of the two, something that became apparent to Nessie as her own lack of experience was shown quite clearly in her riding of her broomstick. It wasn't horrible... it wasn't great either. Just unpolished. Maybe slightly worse than that. But it was competent enough so that she could just about keep up, with Lumière's radiant wings acting as a good beacon for her to aim towards. Her focus on her flying, however, meant that the redhead was completely unprepared for what would come next.
She caught it out of the corner of her eye: the invisible impact hitting Wilhelmina with such force that she was thrown right back down towards the soggy earth. Nessie, though, barely saw any of this, let alone the events that followed, as she too was hit by a gust, no, a burst of wind-like energy that caught her off guard enough for her to be knocked completely off of her broom. And with her hands and the broomstick itself being so slippery from the rain, there was no holding on for dear life this time. Instead, the girl found herself plummeting right back down towards the ground, from a height that would surely prove fatal to her, her allies shrinking in her vision as those yellow as continued to loom large over all of them. And then, stillness.
But not the stillness of death, absolutely not. Nessie could tell that immediately by the rain still tumbling over her face and the rest of her body. No, this was the stillness of being halted gently. Of being caught. And so she had. Whether intentional or not, the rain had bent itself to Nessie's desire, her very thoughts and her will. Droplets had fused together, disobeying the laws of science that governed them to form a dense bed of water that held the Magical Girl like a child in a cot, for enough time so that her broomstick could find its way to her, before dispersing and showering down onto the muddy earth below.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!"
Nessie cried out through the vicious storm, waving to and reassuring her companions while she hastily flew back up to meet them.
"Fuckin' hell that better not happen again..." Came a grumbled mutter to herself, her relief turning to anger directed at the thing that assaulted her in the first place, her own glaring eyes staring piercingly at the equally unyielding eyes of the Pageless that stared back, flickering mysteriously in a way the girl couldn't figure out. It unnerved her.
"What's going on...?"
Nessie turned to Lumière, realising that she was still a little out of her depth here. What a first patrol this was turning out to be...
Though Lucette's answer was decidedly more sensical, informed and intriguing than Wilhelmina's, both answers got an appreciative smile from the curious Nessie, as new information pieced together in her mind to finally give her a proper idea of what they were up against, and why they were up against it. The senior magical girl's story of her self-proclaimed 'most interesting encounter' also did not disappoint. The initial shock on Nessie's face, after realising their group leader was perhaps around a century older than her appearance suggested -whatever skin lotion Lucette was using, she needed it-, gradually creased more and more into a look of utter bewilderment across the redhead's countenance as the story was told.
"Holy shit..." Was all Nessie could manage, an exhale of a mutter in the silence after the tense conclusion of Lucette's recollection. After all that, of course, only more questions were uncovered in the process of her previous ones being answered, but those could wait. Maybe she'd even find out some answers herself today.
As though a response to her very thoughts, no sooner than when the group was ready to move on, did the clouds rolls like a jagged blanket to cover the once-blue sky. Now there was no need for Lucette to demonstrate the contrast between light and shadow. The shadow had come. And, for now, there was little light to be seen. Rain harshly showered over the city, darkening all that it touched and soaking any who would brave the storm unprotected. Though that was nothing compared to the intensity of the lightning strikes that pierced through cloud and tore into unseen locations, creating an ominous resonance that echoed through Nessie like a sinister alarm. It's not like she wasn't used to it, after all she was from Scotland for christ's sake, but something about lightning always felt... unnerving to her.
If that hadn't made her stomach drop though then what lurked above, shown only in brief flashes from forks of lightning around it, definitely did. A pair of giant, coin-like golden eyes staring down at them. At everyone in the city. The complete lack of spirit and emotion in them, their unflinching nature, made them about as far from being human as could possibly be. And so little doubt was left in Nessie's mind as to what exactly this creature was. But things were different now. She didn't have to run away or cower, and neither did she feel like it. In fact, if anything, she felt a certain sense of excitement. This wasn't just a chance to get to grips more with her powers, but it was also an opportunity to kick some ass with her comrades. There was something so exhilarating about that to the young Scot.
Closing her eyes, Nessie conjured the image of her grimoire and witch attire in her mind, focussing on it from a meditative angle and keeping completely still. As a light filled her mind's eye, the rain which poured down around her suddenly changed the direction of their streams, converging and spiralling around her, practically engulfing the girl, before bursting away to reveal her transformed state and outfit below. She stepped to her teammates' sides, broomstick materialising in her grip as she turned to each in turn with an enthusiastic grin, defiant of the presence of those looming eyes above them.
"So, where does this one rank in your 'most interesting Pageless' encounters then?"
She joshed Lucette, turning to her with a cheeky sideward glance.
"Holy shit..." Was all Nessie could manage, an exhale of a mutter in the silence after the tense conclusion of Lucette's recollection. After all that, of course, only more questions were uncovered in the process of her previous ones being answered, but those could wait. Maybe she'd even find out some answers herself today.
As though a response to her very thoughts, no sooner than when the group was ready to move on, did the clouds rolls like a jagged blanket to cover the once-blue sky. Now there was no need for Lucette to demonstrate the contrast between light and shadow. The shadow had come. And, for now, there was little light to be seen. Rain harshly showered over the city, darkening all that it touched and soaking any who would brave the storm unprotected. Though that was nothing compared to the intensity of the lightning strikes that pierced through cloud and tore into unseen locations, creating an ominous resonance that echoed through Nessie like a sinister alarm. It's not like she wasn't used to it, after all she was from Scotland for christ's sake, but something about lightning always felt... unnerving to her.
If that hadn't made her stomach drop though then what lurked above, shown only in brief flashes from forks of lightning around it, definitely did. A pair of giant, coin-like golden eyes staring down at them. At everyone in the city. The complete lack of spirit and emotion in them, their unflinching nature, made them about as far from being human as could possibly be. And so little doubt was left in Nessie's mind as to what exactly this creature was. But things were different now. She didn't have to run away or cower, and neither did she feel like it. In fact, if anything, she felt a certain sense of excitement. This wasn't just a chance to get to grips more with her powers, but it was also an opportunity to kick some ass with her comrades. There was something so exhilarating about that to the young Scot.
Closing her eyes, Nessie conjured the image of her grimoire and witch attire in her mind, focussing on it from a meditative angle and keeping completely still. As a light filled her mind's eye, the rain which poured down around her suddenly changed the direction of their streams, converging and spiralling around her, practically engulfing the girl, before bursting away to reveal her transformed state and outfit below. She stepped to her teammates' sides, broomstick materialising in her grip as she turned to each in turn with an enthusiastic grin, defiant of the presence of those looming eyes above them.
"So, where does this one rank in your 'most interesting Pageless' encounters then?"
She joshed Lucette, turning to her with a cheeky sideward glance.
Checking in, @Sonnambula, you posting soon?
Yeah, sorry sorry, been a bit of a nightmare of a week for me. I'll try get something out tomorrow.
Thomas grit his teeth, an appropriately piercing melody played with perfect accuracy and articulation within his own mind and soul, a melody that only he could hear. A melody that screamed danger and despair, with the dragon's own guttural howls acting almost like a distorted countermelody to it. Quite the stark contrast to what followed quite abruptly after, as Kanbaru approached both him and Riku.
Now, instead of an outright burst of malice, the music instead told a far more subtle, but yet still sinister, story. It was much like Kanbaru's demeanour, her predatory smirk and the way it felt she was looking, staring at them... or was that even Kanbaru at all? Whoever and whatever didn't really matter though, what mattered was the way it came across, how off it felt. The recognisable quality of the melody didn't even rub off on the boy, not yet at this point. But it did give him the idea that something was up.
The realisation that this dark, menacing beast was Katie, however, was something that resonated loudly over the music in his already sound-filled mind. Not to mention the questions that came with it, but for now that was neither here nor there. Thomas' head snapped to Riku, his countenance creased with confusion and absolute bewilderment, and then back to the dragon. Or, well, Katie.
"That... that can't be..."
Now all ideas of attack and retaliation became a lot less favourable to the boy, as it did for Riku as well, though at the same time the task of talking her down or out of this state, of which she seemed to have little or no control over, seemed close to fruitless. How could they reason with a dragon that large on the attack, no matter who it was below the scales? And attack it did, a deadly rush of air pressure slicing through the atmosphere at a breakneck speed towards the group. Materialising his glaive near instantly and bracing himself, Thomas began to perform quick and precise revolutions with the weapon, spinning it and building up momentum, before that built up force and energy met the impact of the blow, blocking and practically negating it save for the boy being forced back a few paces.
But that was only the start of it. As the crumbling ceiling of the Abyss hurled debris down to the party, an onslaught of dark fireballs was launched their way as well, a lethal shower of obsidian flame. The boy weaved and dodged his way around them as best as he could, and with surprising elegance too, though a few small burns and singed hairs were certainly visible, even after using his glaive to ward away the last few that were sent towards him.
And, if that wasn't enough, the dragon followed in its projectiles' footsteps, swooping down and hurtling towards the group like a machine, uncompromising in speed and power and about the most menacing image Thomas had seen so far during his time in the Tower. Was this really Katie? This bringer of absolute destruction, attacking with reckless abandon and a lack of compassion that made the regular Katie seem like an overbearing aunt in comparison. Perhaps a previous version of the boy would've dived out of the way at this point into safety, or gone to someone else to help him or tell him what to do. But at that moment, given the circumstances, the idea of that was inconceivable to Thomas. Maybe it was partially down to the fact that he felt he had little, if anything, to lose at this point. But if there was any chance that he could get through to Katie, then he was going to take it, whether it seemed hopeless or not.
The melody in his head now played louder than ever, but Thomas didn't hear it at all. His violet eyes gleamed as he waited for the right moment, staring down a colossal jaw and a seemingly soulless pair of marble-like eyes while counting down the seconds. And then he closed his eyes, and leapt.
Palms clutching, fingers gripping for dear life, arms and legs wrapped tightly around that long and winding tail. When he opened his eyes, Thomas couldn't quite believe what he saw before him. A back. A gargantuan back. The dragon's back, just in front of him. He'd actually made it. Though the boy was hesitant to call it a success just yet though, in fact he was far from it, given that now came the equally difficult task of staying on the damn thing, as well as getting off of its tail and onto its back...
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