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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 5, 2022 20:00:21 GMT -8
The storm he had seen coming had crept up on him despite his control over the flow of time intended to keep it slowed down and at bay, but it had been long enough to center himself in the chaos. He no longer felt the always present pangs of anxiety that had seeded him with uncertainty and the need for complete control.
Rising from his overwatch position he felt the beckoning of his limbs to move once more like one such as he should. Running through the sandy beach and in between the lightning strikes and then immediately around where the ground was still warm, the Beast let loose raking his claws across the sand in a discordant mix of graceful swirls and jagged swipes. He slowly turned an area of it into a Zen Garden, were such a garden to be tended by a velociraptor and a thunderstorm with no concern about leaving footprints that mar the work. The rain would take care of those as well as any mistakes in the artistry.
In raptor gardens, there are no rules.
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Post by Mitchell Carr on Jan 5, 2022 20:23:24 GMT -8
Mitch grinned back, sharing the joy as someone close to him grasped something important and shouted victory. The Season wrote itself across the Thorns, flowing auroras of light through the curtains of the storm as roots and greenery started to force its way through the barren sand. He moved without thinking from the awning as Henley shouted and breached the raging ocean, giving the Nymph a wave as the marble skin was drenched in mad rebellion.
His expression twisted in residual fear, dropping the weapons he had spun with the elements. Sliced patterns riddled across desiccated flesh revealed themselves between lightning flashes; seeing the faces of ghosts from the shards of memories he never wanted. He felt unsafe and on fire as the rules were washed away, freezing in a series of flinches as crystals riddled themselves all throughout the spiral patterns of Zephyr's brands. Real sight without the hollow mask snapped open in a fan of eyes across his skin, with the spikes fully peeling into pin feathers as razor-sharp wings unfurled in a chaotic flurry that he laughed through, embracing the thrill of just being himself without judgement.
The Dancer held his face, trying to keep it together as he swayed to the rhythm of shattering structures as his form rung between his Desire and sanity.
He just needed to let go.
--
Gavin's hair stood up as he sensed the crustaceans worming their way to the surface to mindlessly seek the meals fat with glamour and emotion, only for the flooding to distract the sea of bubbling maws to greedily pick at the sparkling water like desperate gold prospectors. They seemed content to follow Henley's shouted offering in the moment, rather than swarm the emotional pair further off or snip some skin off the apex predator. Emboldened, a few started to spin the night sky into matter they could climb, clustering around the waterfall to gorge themselves like aphids on a leaf. The Hobgoblins started to rupture, spreading new sea life in skittering and blooming fauna with the spray of gold.
--
The mermaids were fevered and frantic, eyes black as they snapped at the raining sparks and hummed a discordant chorus. Razor teeth stretched in awe and hunger at Nate Henley as the promise of more held back the inevitable feeding frenzy. One bit his finger, creating a tiny swirl of blood as another squeezed him in a tight hug of excited familiarity.
The chant of more was taken up as the voice of the powerful Emotion.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 5, 2022 22:20:26 GMT -8
"MITCH!" Yuan launched into movement, bare feet skirting on the sandy beach like a water skater. His mind was racing trying to understand what had happened. The display of power had been beautiful, no matter how brief it had been. His hands deftly searched the limp body for traces of blood, coming back with only wet sand. He checked for pulse, and then for breathing. Desperation streamed down his face in oily tears and he pleaded for the Dancer to be okay.
"Mitch, wake up! I need you to wake up! Henley will be back any second with your Icon. Don't you fucking dare bail on me! Not this time!"
He wanted to beat some fight back into him, so spine to face his problems head on, with the help of those who had braved the Thorns for him. Forgoing any decorum, the Beast was on his knees, grime and sand covering him and getting washed away in rapid successions. Driven by singular purpose, he had shed expectations at last. Resentment he didn't know he was holding onto poured out like foul blood, leaving a wound, clean and ready for healing.
He felt like an exposed wire, like lightning could strike him at any time.
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Post by Mitchell Carr on Jan 5, 2022 23:27:59 GMT -8
The world was tilted as he didn't remember going down. Things had transitioned seamlessly without the Lost aware of his break from existence, squinting as water peppered his face and the sky twisted and unsure why the Beast was shouting and crying. He had probably scared him somehow, not trusting the words that delayed and didn't sync quite right with his lips.
"Hey, hey, I'm fine," he murmured, mostly lost in the tearing storm as he cupped the Beast's face to prove there wasn't an issue. "...I think I finally tripped," he laughed, embarrassed as he pulled himself to sit up once he was confident he wasn't going to be sick. Sea water and sand was in his mouth, and he sneezed as he breathed it through his nose, tilting it in the hopes that the rain would wash it off.
A wave rolled across the beach, with mermaids laughing in the shallow tide that had covered the beach as they tumbled Henley towards the giant pit. A few called out to the other Lost, matching the Ogre's manic cheer as they sang for them to come along with, dangling the promise of treasure with a siren's lilting cadence.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 6, 2022 19:49:27 GMT -8
Sensing the shift in direction and travel of his companions the Beast's promise called to him and dragged him out of his wistful reverie with the sand.
The haunting allure calling from beneath the shimmering chop bade caution. None of his library of forms were dedicated to a life in the water. That would leave him in a difficult position after the first minute under the surface without the right preparation.
Popping a pair of goblin fruit in his maw to replenish his reserves, he then set to spinning what he needed: air to breathe.
The rhythm of the lightning had been paired with his heartbeat for some time now so it had betrayed its pattern to his manipulation. The energy of the lightning was already striking and diffusing into the water at a variety of points, now it would serve him and his need. Everyone knew a kick could knock the wind out of a person and make it difficult to breathe. He was going to turn it all around.
He had wanted to kick the lightning and will its connection with the sky and its attendant wind to aerate the water, but the Hedge was fickle this time and offered him a turn of good luck instead. The predicted flash had arrived early, sending the Beast into a sliding stop raking his claws across the ground. Buried within the path of his scampering halt he felt a lump dig into his butt when he landed on it. He had discovered working scuba gear left behind by some previous adventurer. Full tank. As a strong swimmer from Oz, he was already quite familiar with its operation, but could not recall the particulars as he reflexively donned it to join his Motley in the depths.
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 7, 2022 14:49:00 GMT -8
"Looks like we're moving," said Yuan to Mitch. "Think you can stand up?" Helping the Dancer back to his feet, he couldn't help but marvel at how the Hedge was responding to them. Every step they took sent ripples of colours across the beach. Unseen magnetism kept them together as they skidded across the surface of wet sand like so much mirror. The hole was fast approaching, their hearts beating in unison as the Playmate took the lead for once.
"Don't miss your count," he playfully jabbed before unleashing the built up momentum into a jump over the edge. He yelled in exhilaration as he fell, like some Greek twink that had been warned against hubris. His Mantle caught in the falling rain, manifesting flightless feathers of gossamer greens and blues, trusting Mitch to catch him in the plunge. Yuan felt the shift overtake him and gravity lessened. Blood was thundering in his ears, his breath caught in his throat.
It felt good to let go.
The pair floated down the hole, shimmering and untouchable to the meet with Gavin and Henley. "Sup?" he offered casually.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 8, 2022 23:38:19 GMT -8
Watching the spirals of sand as the Razorhand frolicked, Mitch called out in alarm as lightning struck and Gavin fell, exhaling as he triumphantly produced spun equipment and charged to join the rest without hesitation. The Playmate took point as the Fairest was herded by the two Beasts, blinking as Yuan seemed to read his mind on keeping rhythm and barely had time to respond before the other was leaping. Bouncing between swearing and laughter from the adrenaline and raptured glamour, he kept sync without thinking to fly down the abyssal crater. Mitch made sure to lock eyes with Gavin before catching Yuan to vanish to the ephemeral, letting the Oath do the rest of the work to keep them connected. "They can't see or hear you," he gasped between bubbling laughter, trying to catch his breath as he held Yuan and tried to regain his bearings in the sudden freefall. Henley's eyes had gone black like a shark, skin the chameleon kaleidoscope of a cephalopod as he dragged the flood of glamour from a Keeper's citadel; bathing in power and the lifeblood of those who don't exist. The swirling vortex crashed into them, spinning even those on the other plane as they were whipped into a slipstream and hauled along an unseen Trod through a gap in the stone and darkening kelp. The world became an impossible blur as the mermaid song seemed to move space itself and keep the rest of slowing down or making sense. The whirlwind snapped linear for Yuan and Carr, where both noted the flicker and disappearance of something moving on their periphery.
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Post by Henley on Jan 9, 2022 0:06:01 GMT -8
The whirlwind was coming, and it would hurt. He needed to be okay. Keeping control of the glamour flow was so important right now.
It wasn't very often that Nate Henley's natural capabilities as a swimmer came up in his day to day life in the desert city of Las Vegas, Nevada. As the cyclone whirled them down and threatened them with injury, however, he did what came naturally - swam at high speed back the other way, capturing the essence of his athleticism and countering the cyclone with a quick spinning of the Hedge...
...by folding reality and accelerating the Motley from where they were in the slipstream to the far end with the glamour stream in tow. He grinned at Gavin.
"Bet you wish you were a mermaid right now."
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 9, 2022 11:27:37 GMT -8
Yuan's head snapped as he tried to follow whatever had moved. His pupils dilated to accommodate the lack of light and help the Beast hunt. "Look alive," he whispered, forgetting others couldn't hear him.
"Something's here with us." His hand moved to be closer to his rifle, ready to let go of Mitch at a moment's notice. His stomach lurched as either Henley or Gavin folded space and Yuan let go of his weapon to hold on tighter to the Fairest.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 9, 2022 15:45:58 GMT -8
For a moment, the Playmate's keen eye saw the faint outline of undulating ribbons. The clear flash as the school faded reminded him of glass catfish, or an eel. The journey folded and the stream slowed into something manageable as Henley and Mitchell spun around the same time, with the Oath keeping the motley together. The Fairest blinked as cat claws reflexively clung and he tried to track Yuan's warning; adjusting how he was carrying the other so he wouldn't impede Yuan's ability to use his rifle. Really, all Mitchell had to do was dodge.As they flowed into an underwater ruin, Gavin's instincts fired as goosebumps raised feathers that weren't there anymore, anticipating the flickering in their immediate area. The Beast knew that changing locations would take them away from the secret Trod to the Trove Guardian, and ripping the water from the immediate area would destroy Henley's stream from the waterfall (and their subsequent payment). Henley had folded space for everyone, and whatever Yuan and Mitch had seen in the ephemeral, it was moving between both streams of existence. The chamber they entered was riddled with corpses of a lost adventure, long since emptied of gas and picked for nutrients. A few of Henley's cousins grabbed a skull or two just to make sure, like squirrels greedily inspecting the husk of a shell.On the ephemeral plane, the Dancer made a snap judgement of the eels flickering from one plane to the next, looking to draw as many as he could manage to split the swarm. "Eyes shut."
Holding Yuan didn't seem to be a problem. Spurned by weightlessness and a lack of tangible flesh and care for consequence, glamour tore into tracers of fractal reality as whatever the hell Mitchell Carr's dancing looked like when he had no limits with time and space, and nailed every impossible maneuver did indeed attract lots and lots of attention. A choir of despair and roaring epiphany heralded the mad spectacle as four of the eels locked onto the enchanting Fairest and nothing else. Splitting hairs between seconds, Gavin yelled a warning at the same time through the Regulator in his mouth, a flash popped through the husk filled chamber with streaks of static, as the ghostly outline of a moray eel manifested.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Jan 9, 2022 16:28:47 GMT -8
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Hua Yuan
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Presence 2 - Nostalgic; SL 1 - Flawless
Posts: 304
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Post by Hua Yuan on Jan 9, 2022 19:39:08 GMT -8
The Beast did what he had been asked to. He closed his eyes shut, tight enough to start seeing stars in the darkness. He felt the currents shift around him as Mitch moved through the water. Only when everything wound down to a stop did he dare to look.
And a bunch of eels looked back.
Eels we’re kind of like snakes, right? Just in water. Yuan knew a little about snakes, what with the time he spent out in the desert, and was hoping that he could translate his knowledge.
He’s never seen Mitch fight before, but the Fairest was digging deep in his bag of tricks this time around. If it was anything like the way he danced, Yuan had little to worry about.
Still, not trusting his read on the situation, Yuan tried to assert dominance through the sheer power of his countenance and whimsy. Animals loved a pecking order.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 10, 2022 23:33:29 GMT -8
Yuan noted the hunger and snapping at the sparkling glamour on the other side of the veil, realizing that the eels were flocking to Henley's feeding frenzy. The Changelings carried the same source, and shocking the Nymph would allow them to feast on the catch before dragging off the shoal's quarry like a pack of scavenging hyenas (before the mermaids inevitably beat them back). They danced around the Razorhand's claws, snatching gold nuggets from the water with gaping mouths as the Hedge Divers shook from the powerful tasing.
The eels surged towards the other pair, intent on picking apart Mitch's Arcadian mien like piranha. The Beast's raw magnetism caused a pivot as the crystal chimera rumbled a territorial growl. They hovered around the bigger predator, unsure as the large and braver ones tried to test the Dancer's flesh like curious fish, or maybe a defiant dog pushing a boundary. The halfhearted approach slid along the confusing tracers of Mitch's Cunning, darting back a few inches as Yuan stared at them.
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Post by Henley on Jan 10, 2022 23:44:45 GMT -8
The electric shock locked Henley's muscles and would have driven the breath from him if he were using his lungs to breath. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he forced his way out, speeding through the water to sweep underneath Gavin. An eel's teeth found his arm and latched on, tearing a chunk out. He shook it off with a cry of pain, gritting his teeth as blood began to flow. Unarmed and unarmored, the Nymph's powerful tail drove him forward, underneath Gavin and --
-- into the ethereal world of the Shield.
"Two more on the other side," he called to the others, cradling the scuba diving Razorhand as he whirled his tail to come to a stop among friends.
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Post by Krakenbox on Jan 12, 2022 20:06:39 GMT -8
The eyes sprouted across Mitch's mein blinked as he tried to register the garbled message, watching the Hedge Beasts struggle with his Contract and occasionally graze each other if they get a little too brave. He waited a beat to see if anything else was going to happen as he did the math on Yuan's posturing and the school's sudden drop in surging aggression; he was used to the Playmate's claws digging into him at this point. Henley's blood only earned a few instinctual glances as the Arcadian magic kept them locked onto the Dancer, though Mitch himself winced at the Ogre's bite in sympathy.
The mermaids had a few seize in the shockwaves, while others were tearing into eels with vengeful anger and wanton hunger, peeling strips with their teeth as the large animals strained and bit in turn with a wash of muffled static. A few keened for Henley's return, annoyed that he was currently out of sight but not discouraged with the redirected flood streaming glamour along their Trod. The rest of the eels didn't seem interested in flickering back to the ephemeral as they picked and stole from the other group of hobs, and the group opted to simply let the situation settle itself as the creatures fled with thinning numbers; a little fatter for the glamour.
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