[ jiaoqiu isn't exactly the type to jump to fighting normally, but the second that they get close to this area, he's going to gather some fire energy. something about his brain being just a little fucked up, right this second. maybe they've noticed, maybe they haven't, but he is far less timid than he used to be, after his harrowing.
anyway. fire hands! he is a fire unit... sorry to steal your shtick, anders.
he should be scared of this, really, but he isn't. instead, he's curious. he's pretty sure whatever is in there are blood mages, and he should be scared of that, but honestly? maybe a little blood magic isn't that bad. he'd just like to see what he can do with it... he glances at the others. ]
I don't think there's much point in backing out now.
[ they've got magic! shadowheart will protect them. ]
If we're not willing to fight now, then how are going to fight all the way to freedom?
[He inhales. The smell and taste metal in the air doesn't bother him. In fact, it's comforting. Like it's pulling at the edges of his skin and leading him closer. The pulse in the air keeping time with the beat of his heart. He's never been in a fight before but he feels like knows he can win against some low level templars.
He'll put a barrier a magic barrier over them and then just... start moving forward.]
[ charlie kneels by the templars (likely dead), to see if there's anything that can be done for them. even if they are (jean ralphio voice) the wooooooooorst, she is, at heart, a pacifist, and doesn't want to see them die. ]
[ in brain, however, she is possessed, so if they're dead, she'll just close their eyes and move on, her own hands sizzling with faint traces of lightning magic as they move forward. surely, she will be the voice of reason here? ]
Well-- let's just see what's happening. If it's too much, we can leave.
[ yes she can have a sword even though you are a mage surely you have no training with that shit. they don't teach mages how to fight in the Circle, but maybe you learned elsewhere. it is very fucking heavy.
they are so super dead and anders is giving her such a judgey look for even trying to help them sorry
anders himself is going to stay VERY in the back of this pile-up, which is maybe the smart idea because the instant they all move into the room they're all getting hit with a violent blast of Force magic that is far more powerful than anything they've ever been hit with in any class or seminar. The barrier is up, but the blast still sends a lot of the glass shards that are laying around this room flying at them with extreme force - enough to pierce through the barrier if your concentration drops for even a second.
this room, though. it's a storage room, mostly full of shelves and shelves of various containers - clay and glass and wood - and everything is being throughly destroyed by three mages. An older man, a young woman, and a boy who can't be older than 14. The woman has blood dripping down from her hands and is the one who's cast the spell at you first thing without asking any questions. ]
[whatever, she may have no training but she is already making it glow like a cool knight enchanter sword. anyway, fucking ouch. she will barrier up as soon as shit pops off, but it doesn't do much to prevent her from being knocked about with force, shards of glass cutting her skin. fuck this! she gets what they may be trying to do here, but rude to attack them straight away.]
We have no fight with you. We came here for what belongs to us, and we'll go if we have it.
[she shouts this, but that doesn't mean she has much hope that they are going to get out of this without a fight. she just thinks these idiots should stop, they're mages too, they're just trying to escape. they didn't ask to be dragged into whatever the fuck this is. but can she look around and presume that their phylacteries may already be destroyed?
[ jesus, okay!! well, he gets pelted by glass shards - nothing terribly painful, but enough that it makes him drop the flame he had gathering around his hands. he makes a startled sound, trying to move out of the way of getting further injured. he doesn't want to hurt the people in this room, but he will if forced.
shadowheart's said everything he wanted to say, so he scoots off to the side behind whatever sort of cover he can find and scans the room for what it is they're doing, exactly. is the blood the woman's? or did she steal it from someone.
also, do they all look like they want to be here? they're not holding this kid hostage, right? ]
[Kaworu will kiss the boy if it counts on the kiss counter getting a kiss on the counter is the only thing i care about FUCK Y'ALL.
Anyway, Kaworu does look at look at the boy his age. Perhaps he recognizes him despite having little interaction with his same age peers due to being a new arrival and passing the Harrowing at a young age.
He looks at the blood on the woman's arm and doesn't feel disgust. Instead he feels drawn to it. What powers are within his body if he were only willing to access them?
[ being attacked by a fellow mage makes something in charlie's blood boil -- but she manages to tamp it down. for the moment. ]
Stop! We're not here to fight.
[ echoing her group's sentiments, she puts her hands up-- and gets some glass to them for her troubles. ouchie. at least the barrier took away the worst of it ]
[ actually funnily enough it doesn't seem like many phylacteries are shattered - the older man and younger boy are holding boxes, and you can't tell for certain, but Anders is certainly looking at it with recognition.
the blood is the woman's own blood, yes.
you are all offering little gestures of kinship and kindness and ander behind just mutters `can I just say I have a problem with the blood mages?` but no one cares about his opinion. shut the fuck up.
especially the boy, who's glowering at you hardest. with a sudden gesture, he digs in the box he was holding and fumbles the rest - it hits the ground with a hard crash - and he holds up a phylactery with a name scrawled on it. Jiaoqiu.
Jiao, your head feels like it's going to fucking explode. Your vision - your perfect vision - narrows to a point and your blood rushes through your ears as you feel it speed up in your own veins as this child starts to control you, try to bind you to the floor with your own blood. Everything hurts. You're probaby screaming, even if you can't know for certain, because you cannot control your own body. ]
You are the thing that belongs to us. We will bring him forth, and no one is going to stop us!
[to anders. she's not a narc, but like, also, a group of more powerful active blood mages who are about to attack you just isn't really the time to get into the moral and philosophical dilemma.
but this is going very bad very quickly. she watches this happen to jiaoqiu and loses any interest in resolving this amicably. she may not have wanted to be here, but she's decided to work with this group of people and she's not going to get one of them be killed.
running at the boy with her sword, trying to summon a blade of magic to surround it.]
[ listen, sometimes you're kind of just chill with people who do fucked up things like blood magic or blowing up entire towers or, y'know, nonspecific things like that.
more seriously, it's that pride. it's the idea that if he had a hand in blood magic, he'd do it right. he'd be able to do it in a way where it didn't hurt someone, and he could use it to heal, or nourish, instead of hurt. that's always what he's wanted to do with magic. and these people, they're living beings, and he always believes in trying to talk it out first. he doesn't like to hurt people.
but people sure like to hurt him! which is why when this little kid wrenches his body down to the floor and starts to fuck with his blood, he isn't sure what to do. he is screaming, he's probably making more noise than any of you have ever heard him make, dropping to the ground and trying to wrench back any sort of control. if he can, out of instinct, he launches some sort of fire in the direction of the trio of blood mages in a desperate attempt to make it stop. ]
Who cares about blood magic? They'd harm us with any magic they could use.
[Kaworu looks at Jiaoqiu, collapsing on the ground in pain, his screams echoing around the rocky cellar walls. It hurts his ears. He doesn't want to see his companion in pain and yet... he doesn't want this boy to die either. Not unless it's necessary.
He follows Shadowheart and then with incredible ease, steps into the fade, and then steps out across the room right next to the boy. He'll reach out and try and pull the phylactery out his hands. If it shatters that's fine. Maybe even for the best. so there's no need to be careful with it.
Or if it shattered, he could see what his blood could do. Just like he tried when he was younger that caused him to be locked away.]
[ and theeeeen shitfuckery happens and it just stops charlie mid-sentence as her vision goes red. ]
Let him go! [ there's a pulse of pure rage as jiaqiu is controlled, but she bites back the urge to attack the child. for now. shadowheart and kaworu have the boy and phylactery covered anyway, so she's going to focus on the other mages, using force magic to try to restrain -- but not hurt -- the woman ]
[ anders will do his best to help, but he's mostly here for some nice utility spells. he'll put a glyph on the floor that helps you all feel as if you can move faster, cast stronger, and keep himself out of the fray. he'll make an attempt at grabbing the back of kaworu's robe, but he's lunging forward before anders can really stop him.
shadowheart slashes her sword down at the boy right at the moment kaworu grabs that phylactery - her sword is powerful and amplified with magic and no mage of the tower has training to protect himself from something like that. she'll slice deeply into his arm and he'll cry out. kaworu will grab the phylactery and it does shatter deeply into his hand. he'll feel his own blood pulse and jitter along his veins, welling up into his palm.
both of them are right in the way of jiaoqiu's massive burst of fire - which sears past pretty much everyone, licking at flesh and catching alight hems of robes. but he's free, he's free, his vision returns and control of his body loosens up - but he can feel the ache in his body still, places where skin has started to split under the pressure.
charlie works to control the woman with a force spell and it's effective in keeping her in place, she struggles, bleeding from her hands still to free herself, shrieking in rage at the affront. something about her is starting to change. her posture, her form. it's as if whatever is inside her can no longer be contained by flesh and is starting to burst forth.
no one has a good bead on the man. he's battered and burnt, but he's free to use spells. he erupts out a chain lightning, sending it burning through everyone in the room regardless of which side they are on. ]
[she has probably never fought someone before and the first time she has it was a teen boy, but the blood is pounding in her ears and she doesn't have time to think about it. the woman is changing - no, no, alright. she's trying to have her cooler head prevail.]
Stop attacking us, look what's happening to her!
[the woman is the greater danger, but if this stupid man is going to still fight them or transform himself, that will make it worse. so unless he stops attacking when she commands it, she'll go for him next, lobbing a few volleys of lightning right back at him. if he does try to stand down, though, she'd do the same to the woman.]
[ well, give him a second, he's just going to lay here and try to recover.
but he needs to help, and now that they've attacked, that they're - turning? whatever this woman is doing is bad. they need to stop her before it gets worse. and he aims to pull himself up to try, except the man shoots lightning and that also hurts - he stiffens and nearly bites his tongue off as it rattles up his spine.
that leaves him dazed for a few seconds, dizzy, but he tries a spell anyway - desperately tries to just. petrify someone. turn to rock. preferably the woman, but if he can't manage that, the man will do.
sorry, he is not paying attention to any measures of stand down. he will not be murdered here, not by whatever demons are trying to break free. as if he doesn't have his own little friend still hiding somewhere. ]
[The lightning burns and makes him choke, wheezing to catch his breath. His hand hurts but he doesn't care. In fact it just pushes him to do something, like it wants to do something. Kaworu grabs the boy, hands around his neck, the blood slick between their flesh.]
Don't move. If you move, I'll kill you.
[His hands tighten around the other kid's throat.]
[ why is he enjoying this indeed. there's a brief sigh of relief as jiaoqiu is freed, but charlie's attention is directed primarily at the woman, who she's trying to contain with force magic. a bead of sweat rolls down her face ]
Whatever you're doing--- stop!
[ and she puts more effort into her magic, as if using magic could somehow stop the transformation and screaming ]
[ anders is doing his best to cast a heal on your group in particular, keeping you upright enough to survive whatever is happening, but it's obvious he's fucking, uh, terrified of whatever is happening. ]
Forget the phylacteries! Let's just go!
[ even if he knows that's a foolish endeavour. if they were worried before about being blamed for something, about being pinned with crimes they didn't commit, this scene will not help that cause. going to try and grab at least kaworu and try and shake him loose of the boy who's starting to cry now. kaworu, you're starting to lose control, but ... you still have what remains. ]
Come on. Let him go.
[ it's probably not any good for anyone, however, because the man is not standing down, and takes the full brunt of the lightning - falling to the floor still twitching with it before being fully petrified as well. because the woman is surrounded with a terrible force field - strong enough to push you all back, before she erupts into a horrible creature. It's ten feet tall and smells of nothing but blood, a howling demon intent on taking out as many of them with her as possible.
And those of you afflicted, you feel the call in your blood too. she growls out, more beast than human: ]
Yes, I quite agree, but I suspect turning our backs on her will do us little good!
[for once, anders, you make a good point. what she doesn't understand yet, even if he does, is what is happening to the others in their little party. so she will turn her back on them, and instead stand between them and the woman who is transforming, the most obvious danger.
all of them were so hurt and frightened after the harrowing. she was frightened too, but perhaps she found it easier to pretend that the things she saw and that nearly happened to her didn't affect her. the same is true now. this is everything they've ever been told to fear, and there's nowhere safe to return to. she would even gladly take a templar's protection now, but of course they aren't here when there's actually something to protect them from.
so, she needs to be the strong one, even if it's only pretend. even if her belief in some sort of internal strength and purpose she had was one only she ever believed in, and everyone else always dismissed her. she summons the glowing blade of light again to the sword she's carrying and attempts to slash it across her body while charlie is still trying to hold her in place.]
he's been trying to resist - or, well, he's been trying not to hurt who shouldn't be hurt. a healer is at his best when he can hold out his hands to the lost. maybe that was what he was trying to do here, but not now. now, the lost have turned on him. the lost are turning, becoming something terrible, and his pride refuses to let that stand. no, he will not fade. no, he will not die here - he will do this better than all of them. the only way to make this right is to start over.
and so he does. battered and broken, jiaoqiu's form twists, rips, bleeds - and reforms into something monstrous, technically a fox but not. the creature throws back its head and screams, a howl that shakes the foundations. and it claws itself up to its feet, crunching the tiles below it.
its eyes flash gold, and it throws itself into the fray, aiming to try and crunch its way through the blood mages. it does not seem to care if jiaoqiu's friends are in the way, either. ]
[Kaworu's hands tighten around the boy's throat, the blood slick and hot where skin meets skin. He leans over closer, his eyes boring into the other boy's pupils, seeking energy, seeking someone. He could use his teeth and tear into this boy. All that blood.. all of that power that has been contained within him awakened and unleashed. He was born with a demon inside of him and now it's exploding into life like fire.
He leans over and presses his lips to the other boy's mouth. He could open is mouth and eat him. Consume all of him for some fleeting happiness. Then for a moment there's clarity, he shoves the boy away, towards the door, eyes wide and manic.]
Get out of here.
[Then Kaworu implodes and something else reforms. A disgusting form somewhere between human and animal. It turns to the male mage and descends on him with teeth and claws.]
[ charlie screams, something feral and monstrous, and well, mom says it's MY turn to transform ]
[ that is to say, horns rip their way painfully through her skull, her nails grow longer, into claws, a tail sprouts from her back, and she starts to look. well. demonic ]
[ she's not attacking just yet, just screaming and screaming and screaming but she loses hold of her magic, and, anders and shadowheart will be able to make out one word before it's lost into guttural noises:
[ ANDERS WOULD LIKE TO BUT THERES THREE DEMONS IN THE WAY OF THE DOOR.
kaworu, with one last act of kindness, you let the boy go and -- almost miraculously he scrambles for the door way and bolts out and out and out into the passageways and keeps fucking running. who knows if he makes it. none of you are about to find out, because you don't get the feeling you are going to make it very far from here.
between shadowhearts slash and jq's teeth and claws and violence, the woman is basically just ... meat now. whatever creature she was isn't even a creature anymore, she's simply splattered. kaworu, you turn to the remaining male mage - distracted as he is with watching all of this erupt into chaos - your teeth tear into him like hot knife into butter. he isn't long for this world, but as he leaves it, he projects a cone of cold - sending violent icicles out from his body and piercing whatever and whoever is in the way of it. if you happen to be standing nearby (you all are), you can get an ice stab as a treat. ]
[she's tearing into this creature that used to be a woman, tearing the meat of her to ribbons. it's easier than she imagined. the blood and body become ribbons for her, the adrenaline coursing through her prevents her from feeling sickened or afraid. maybe it's the first time in a long time she hasn't felt afraid.
and then jiaoqiu tears into her, and kaworu dives and tears into the male mage, and charlie is screaming "run" before transforming as well.
nevermind, she's afraid again after all. she makes aggressive eye contact with anders. please don't explode into demons too. i just met you but my friends, to the extent we were friends, are all demons now.
the ice stabs into her side, waking her from the terror she's feeling. she doesn't have time to hesitate or wish this wasn't happening or mourn them. she has to get the fuck out of here with anyone who can still be saved. holding her blade out in front of her and summoning lightning again, trying to strike all of them.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
holyspirits) wrote2025-03-23 03:14 pm
no subject
anyway. fire hands! he is a fire unit... sorry to steal your shtick, anders.
he should be scared of this, really, but he isn't. instead, he's curious. he's pretty sure whatever is in there are blood mages, and he should be scared of that, but honestly? maybe a little blood magic isn't that bad. he'd just like to see what he can do with it... he glances at the others. ]
I don't think there's much point in backing out now.
[ they've got magic! shadowheart will protect them. ]
no subject
[He inhales. The smell and taste metal in the air doesn't bother him. In fact, it's comforting. Like it's pulling at the edges of his skin and leading him closer. The pulse in the air keeping time with the beat of his heart. He's never been in a fight before but he feels like knows he can win against some low level templars.
He'll put a barrier a magic barrier over them and then just... start moving forward.]
no subject
[ in brain, however, she is possessed, so if they're dead, she'll just close their eyes and move on, her own hands sizzling with faint traces of lightning magic as they move forward. surely, she will be the voice of reason here? ]
Well-- let's just see what's happening. If it's too much, we can leave.
[ jk ]
no subject
they are so super dead and anders is giving her such a judgey look for even trying to help them sorry
anders himself is going to stay VERY in the back of this pile-up, which is maybe the smart idea because the instant they all move into the room they're all getting hit with a violent blast of Force magic that is far more powerful than anything they've ever been hit with in any class or seminar. The barrier is up, but the blast still sends a lot of the glass shards that are laying around this room flying at them with extreme force - enough to pierce through the barrier if your concentration drops for even a second.
this room, though. it's a storage room, mostly full of shelves and shelves of various containers - clay and glass and wood - and everything is being throughly destroyed by three mages. An older man, a young woman, and a boy who can't be older than 14. The woman has blood dripping down from her hands and is the one who's cast the spell at you first thing without asking any questions. ]
Our work will not be disturbed!
no subject
We have no fight with you. We came here for what belongs to us, and we'll go if we have it.
[she shouts this, but that doesn't mean she has much hope that they are going to get out of this without a fight. she just thinks these idiots should stop, they're mages too, they're just trying to escape. they didn't ask to be dragged into whatever the fuck this is. but can she look around and presume that their phylacteries may already be destroyed?
anyway kaworu you should totally kiss that boy.]
no subject
shadowheart's said everything he wanted to say, so he scoots off to the side behind whatever sort of cover he can find and scans the room for what it is they're doing, exactly. is the blood the woman's? or did she steal it from someone.
also, do they all look like they want to be here? they're not holding this kid hostage, right? ]
no subject
Anyway, Kaworu does look at look at the boy his age. Perhaps he recognizes him despite having little interaction with his same age peers due to being a new arrival and passing the Harrowing at a young age.
He looks at the blood on the woman's arm and doesn't feel disgust. Instead he feels drawn to it. What powers are within his body if he were only willing to access them?
Then he nods at Shadowheart.]
Are we not all mages? We don't need to fight.
[But he will.]
no subject
Stop! We're not here to fight.
[ echoing her group's sentiments, she puts her hands up-- and gets some glass to them for her troubles. ouchie. at least the barrier took away the worst of it ]
no subject
the blood is the woman's own blood, yes.
you are all offering little gestures of kinship and kindness and ander behind just mutters `can I just say I have a problem with the blood mages?` but no one cares about his opinion. shut the fuck up.
especially the boy, who's glowering at you hardest. with a sudden gesture, he digs in the box he was holding and fumbles the rest - it hits the ground with a hard crash - and he holds up a phylactery with a name scrawled on it. Jiaoqiu.
Jiao, your head feels like it's going to fucking explode. Your vision - your perfect vision - narrows to a point and your blood rushes through your ears as you feel it speed up in your own veins as this child starts to control you, try to bind you to the floor with your own blood. Everything hurts. You're probaby screaming, even if you can't know for certain, because you cannot control your own body. ]
You are the thing that belongs to us. We will bring him forth, and no one is going to stop us!
no subject
[to anders. she's not a narc, but like, also, a group of more powerful active blood mages who are about to attack you just isn't really the time to get into the moral and philosophical dilemma.
but this is going very bad very quickly. she watches this happen to jiaoqiu and loses any interest in resolving this amicably. she may not have wanted to be here, but she's decided to work with this group of people and she's not going to get one of them be killed.
running at the boy with her sword, trying to summon a blade of magic to surround it.]
You ask for this fight!
no subject
more seriously, it's that pride. it's the idea that if he had a hand in blood magic, he'd do it right. he'd be able to do it in a way where it didn't hurt someone, and he could use it to heal, or nourish, instead of hurt. that's always what he's wanted to do with magic. and these people, they're living beings, and he always believes in trying to talk it out first. he doesn't like to hurt people.
but people sure like to hurt him! which is why when this little kid wrenches his body down to the floor and starts to fuck with his blood, he isn't sure what to do. he is screaming, he's probably making more noise than any of you have ever heard him make, dropping to the ground and trying to wrench back any sort of control. if he can, out of instinct, he launches some sort of fire in the direction of the trio of blood mages in a desperate attempt to make it stop. ]
no subject
[Kaworu looks at Jiaoqiu, collapsing on the ground in pain, his screams echoing around the rocky cellar walls. It hurts his ears. He doesn't want to see his companion in pain and yet... he doesn't want this boy to die either. Not unless it's necessary.
He follows Shadowheart and then with incredible ease, steps into the fade, and then steps out across the room right next to the boy. He'll reach out and try and pull the phylactery out his hands. If it shatters that's fine. Maybe even for the best. so there's no need to be careful with it.
Or if it shattered, he could see what his blood could do. Just like he tried when he was younger that caused him to be locked away.]
no subject
[ and theeeeen shitfuckery happens and it just stops charlie mid-sentence as her vision goes red. ]
Let him go! [ there's a pulse of pure rage as jiaqiu is controlled, but she bites back the urge to attack the child. for now. shadowheart and kaworu have the boy and phylactery covered anyway, so she's going to focus on the other mages, using force magic to try to restrain -- but not hurt -- the woman ]
no subject
shadowheart slashes her sword down at the boy right at the moment kaworu grabs that phylactery - her sword is powerful and amplified with magic and no mage of the tower has training to protect himself from something like that. she'll slice deeply into his arm and he'll cry out. kaworu will grab the phylactery and it does shatter deeply into his hand. he'll feel his own blood pulse and jitter along his veins, welling up into his palm.
both of them are right in the way of jiaoqiu's massive burst of fire - which sears past pretty much everyone, licking at flesh and catching alight hems of robes. but he's free, he's free, his vision returns and control of his body loosens up - but he can feel the ache in his body still, places where skin has started to split under the pressure.
charlie works to control the woman with a force spell and it's effective in keeping her in place, she struggles, bleeding from her hands still to free herself, shrieking in rage at the affront. something about her is starting to change. her posture, her form. it's as if whatever is inside her can no longer be contained by flesh and is starting to burst forth.
no one has a good bead on the man. he's battered and burnt, but he's free to use spells. he erupts out a chain lightning, sending it burning through everyone in the room regardless of which side they are on. ]
no subject
Stop attacking us, look what's happening to her!
[the woman is the greater danger, but if this stupid man is going to still fight them or transform himself, that will make it worse. so unless he stops attacking when she commands it, she'll go for him next, lobbing a few volleys of lightning right back at him. if he does try to stand down, though, she'd do the same to the woman.]
no subject
but he needs to help, and now that they've attacked, that they're - turning? whatever this woman is doing is bad. they need to stop her before it gets worse. and he aims to pull himself up to try, except the man shoots lightning and that also hurts - he stiffens and nearly bites his tongue off as it rattles up his spine.
that leaves him dazed for a few seconds, dizzy, but he tries a spell anyway - desperately tries to just. petrify someone. turn to rock. preferably the woman, but if he can't manage that, the man will do.
sorry, he is not paying attention to any measures of stand down. he will not be murdered here, not by whatever demons are trying to break free. as if he doesn't have his own little friend still hiding somewhere. ]
no subject
Don't move. If you move, I'll kill you.
[His hands tighten around the other kid's throat.]
Stop her.
[Why is he enjoying this...?]
no subject
Whatever you're doing--- stop!
[ and she puts more effort into her magic, as if using magic could somehow stop the transformation and screaming ]
no subject
Forget the phylacteries! Let's just go!
[ even if he knows that's a foolish endeavour. if they were worried before about being blamed for something, about being pinned with crimes they didn't commit, this scene will not help that cause. going to try and grab at least kaworu and try and shake him loose of the boy who's starting to cry now. kaworu, you're starting to lose control, but ... you still have what remains. ]
Come on. Let him go.
[ it's probably not any good for anyone, however, because the man is not standing down, and takes the full brunt of the lightning - falling to the floor still twitching with it before being fully petrified as well. because the woman is surrounded with a terrible force field - strong enough to push you all back, before she erupts into a horrible creature. It's ten feet tall and smells of nothing but blood, a howling demon intent on taking out as many of them with her as possible.
And those of you afflicted, you feel the call in your blood too. she growls out, more beast than human: ]
None of you are going to leave this place!
no subject
[for once, anders, you make a good point. what she doesn't understand yet, even if he does, is what is happening to the others in their little party. so she will turn her back on them, and instead stand between them and the woman who is transforming, the most obvious danger.
all of them were so hurt and frightened after the harrowing. she was frightened too, but perhaps she found it easier to pretend that the things she saw and that nearly happened to her didn't affect her. the same is true now. this is everything they've ever been told to fear, and there's nowhere safe to return to. she would even gladly take a templar's protection now, but of course they aren't here when there's actually something to protect them from.
so, she needs to be the strong one, even if it's only pretend. even if her belief in some sort of internal strength and purpose she had was one only she ever believed in, and everyone else always dismissed her. she summons the glowing blade of light again to the sword she's carrying and attempts to slash it across her body while charlie is still trying to hold her in place.]
no subject
he's been trying to resist - or, well, he's been trying not to hurt who shouldn't be hurt. a healer is at his best when he can hold out his hands to the lost. maybe that was what he was trying to do here, but not now. now, the lost have turned on him. the lost are turning, becoming something terrible, and his pride refuses to let that stand. no, he will not fade. no, he will not die here - he will do this better than all of them. the only way to make this right is to start over.
and so he does. battered and broken, jiaoqiu's form twists, rips, bleeds - and reforms into something monstrous, technically a fox but not. the creature throws back its head and screams, a howl that shakes the foundations. and it claws itself up to its feet, crunching the tiles below it.
its eyes flash gold, and it throws itself into the fray, aiming to try and crunch its way through the blood mages. it does not seem to care if jiaoqiu's friends are in the way, either. ]
no subject
He leans over and presses his lips to the other boy's mouth. He could open is mouth and eat him. Consume all of him for some fleeting happiness. Then for a moment there's clarity, he shoves the boy away, towards the door, eyes wide and manic.]
Get out of here.
[Then Kaworu implodes and something else reforms. A disgusting form somewhere between human and animal. It turns to the male mage and descends on him with teeth and claws.]
no subject
[ that is to say, horns rip their way painfully through her skull, her nails grow longer, into claws, a tail sprouts from her back, and she starts to look. well. demonic ]
[ she's not attacking just yet, just screaming and screaming and screaming but she loses hold of her magic, and, anders and shadowheart will be able to make out one word before it's lost into guttural noises:
Run!
no subject
kaworu, with one last act of kindness, you let the boy go and -- almost miraculously he scrambles for the door way and bolts out and out and out into the passageways and keeps fucking running. who knows if he makes it. none of you are about to find out, because you don't get the feeling you are going to make it very far from here.
between shadowhearts slash and jq's teeth and claws and violence, the woman is basically just ... meat now. whatever creature she was isn't even a creature anymore, she's simply splattered. kaworu, you turn to the remaining male mage - distracted as he is with watching all of this erupt into chaos - your teeth tear into him like hot knife into butter. he isn't long for this world, but as he leaves it, he projects a cone of cold - sending violent icicles out from his body and piercing whatever and whoever is in the way of it. if you happen to be standing nearby (you all are), you can get an ice stab as a treat. ]
no subject
[she's tearing into this creature that used to be a woman, tearing the meat of her to ribbons. it's easier than she imagined. the blood and body become ribbons for her, the adrenaline coursing through her prevents her from feeling sickened or afraid. maybe it's the first time in a long time she hasn't felt afraid.
and then jiaoqiu tears into her, and kaworu dives and tears into the male mage, and charlie is screaming "run" before transforming as well.
nevermind, she's afraid again after all. she makes aggressive eye contact with anders. please don't explode into demons too. i just met you but my friends, to the extent we were friends, are all demons now.
the ice stabs into her side, waking her from the terror she's feeling. she doesn't have time to hesitate or wish this wasn't happening or mourn them. she has to get the fuck out of here with anyone who can still be saved. holding her blade out in front of her and summoning lightning again, trying to strike all of them.]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)