lostcarnival | ⇨ The Tourist Trap: WEEK 4 PT2

Steven has been trying to heal people, but as soon as Nightshade calls him out directly... he sinks down again, his eyes going wide and his wings tucking in nervous. His glance passes over the people surrounding him, one by one, an intense paranoia plaguing him.

If he went, she would go... he... he knows it can't be worth it. It's not! He needs to get out too, for his dad, and for his family! But... are any of these guys going to try?

His fingers wrap around the fabric over his belly, and he swallows. He's trying to focus on this feeling of cold determination rather than the fear that threatens to overwhelm him. No one is going to listen to her, he tries to tell himself.

He's safe. He's okay. Please.

... Ok. Now that feeling is getting creepy. Zangetsu knows better than to tangle with elementals -- how the heck do you fight fire incarnate? -- so he's sitting this one out, for now.

(He'll go in for a cheap shot if he thinks he can pull it off. He hasn't seen an opportunity.)

But for all the fire and bluster of the elemental, he feels cold. His skeletal dragon head looks around and sniffs the air. It feels good to be able to sense energies, souls, again.

And whatever that was, it was mad.

"I hate to break up all your faerie drama, but does anyone else feel that? No?"

Though, now that he thinks about it... he can sense energies again. He can pick up on souls. Unfortunately, he has no clue what the Count's energy feels like. So he closes most of his various eyes and tries to feel beyond the raging inferno and the sickly sweet nectar-smelling souls, past the icy fury below, past all the souls milling around...

Ugh. It wasn't going to be easy. This would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Or... more like finding a needle in a needle stack. One specific needle. That he's never seen before.

Edited 2017-07-30 02:36 (UTC)

Taako... well, he's not in great shape, but he's at least able to pull himself to a sitting position, an arm still wrapped around his chest. He watches the situation closely, trying to piece together what everyone is talking about; is Steven supposed to be somebody's kid...?

His gaze moves over to Steven; he doesn't know the kid terribly well, but he seems like a sweet boy, and he did just ease Taako's pain by, like, a lot. And, right now, he's looking pretty fucking upset by the idea of what these guys are saying to him, about him.

He can't stand yet, he still hurts all over, but he does steel himself enough to speak:

"... you know you can't just... like... take somebody's kid, right...? Like... I know that's kind of what fae do, but, you know..." He smirks weakly, making a sound that might have been a pained laugh otherwise. "We're not fae, and, uh... nei-neither is he. Far as I know, anyways... so, you know. What I'm getting at here is, uh... no."

Peridot glares right back at Nightshade, something feral flashing across her eyes. Her grip on the poker tightens, her heart pounds frantically against her ribs; she knows she can't win this fight on her own. Other people are stepping in to Steven's defense as well, but it just doesn't feel like enough. Not with how angry she is at this fae, how raw and real the threat it poses to this changeling who is actually the single most important person in Peridot's entire life.

She needs to protect him. Normally, she trusts Steven to protect himself, but here in Portland, things are so backwards... Glancing at him now, he seems even more scared than she is! Ugh, if only she wasn't so small and useless...!

That's when she feels the presence of something reaching out to her, brushing up against her soul and warming it, like a friend who takes your hand comfort you when you're at your very lowest.

It makes her an offer, and she can't accept it fast enough.

She steps forward again, bristling, radiating raw power. White fur is starting to grow over her whole body, her beast's spirit surging within her. And Peridot is still there, she's still in control, but she's also just... something entirely different, at the same time.

It's sort of like fusion, in a way.

The poker is let go, but instead of dropping, it hovers in mid-air next to her. "He is NOT. GOING. WITH YOU!!!" she snarls, her voice strangely distorted, and on the last word the poker streaks towards Nightshade like a bullet.

"Uh..." is all Nightshade can manage, at first. She looks to Ignatius, and Ignatius looks at her - both of their other focuses are distracted by the fact that this werebeast has suddenly started screaming and and rippling with energy.

The energy of the Earth Spirit.

Nightshade actually raises her hands, fluttering back a bit. She's about to say something when the iron goes rocketing in her direction - and, she just barely managed to float out of the way, feeling the burn as it passes.

She scrambles behind Strange's body, using him like a shield.

"You'll have to go through him first if you want to use that, sweetie," she says, but she's obviously unnerved.

Iuliael had tried guarding the place these fae came through, but he's Iuliael. A couple of Iggy's lackeys had completely occupied him. Even now, when there are a lot more questions involved, he's a seraph and fire is part of his nature, so they hadn't been able to hurt him as badly as they might have, but he's scorched and several sets of eyes are seared and oozing and fixed in position, not appearing and disappearing. He's angry and uncertain and has only two ideas, both desperate, but he's so angry and afraid and he heard enough to know he has to try something and now, now, he has to try now!

Flattening and spreading into a kind of disk he flows across the ceiling like a rayfish and draws a hand above his own surface and making a line of white light form across his diameter. Open! It opens like an eye and becomes a window into murky darkness, ringed with light; past it his winged and eyed substance makes him resemble an ophanim, a wheel-shaped angel.

Out: rowboat! A small aluminum boat appears, filled and dripping with a couple hundred gallons of water that surge out into the air as it just drops on a trajectory that ought to hit the fae lord. With a terrified shriek the angel drops after it, trying to slam the portal to his inventory over Ignatius like a cup over a spider. As a shield the portal's fine but some of him is uncovered around the whole edge, and something's only in stasis if it's entirely inside, entirely submerged in this pocket dimension.

~~Well, Carly is sure stuck standing in shock at Everything again~~

Gongenzaka has been doing phenomenally well, keeping his focus. Chaos reigns around them, even within the limits of the circle, and yet he does not so much as budge.

At least, not until the Earth Spirit makes itself known. He tries, at the very least, to give the feeling that he's on its side as his soul continues to brush through things in search of what it feels like. But while the sensation reminds him of what that spirit IS, it makes it difficult to search for where that fragment is.

He needs what feels like the Earth Spirit, that Isn't the Earth Spirit, and it's a little tricky to focus on that thread.

He is doing as best as he can, however...searching desperately with his heart and spirit for that small fragment.

Strange just looks downright worried as the poker flies towards Nightshade but then quickly breathes a sigh of relief as it misses her. Of course it would. She's amazing like that, she could easily dodge a poker.

He doesn't move as Nightshade scrambles behind him. Strange is still a bit winded from the laser blast to the chest but Strange just looks far too delighted at Nightshade's request. Wonderful! She can't be mad about that whole laser thing if she's asking him to protect her!

"I'd be happy to get rid of this pest for you," Strange says, as he turns towards Peridot, with a smirk. With a gesture of his hand, a gust of wind flows in Peridot's direction. It's nowhere near as powerful as the Count of Crows's, but it might just be powerful enough to knock her over.

He 100% underestimates the power of the Earth Spirit and also is 100% underestimating just how much strength he has. Despite what he thinks, Strange is not going to win this fight.

Edited 2017-07-30 03:37 (UTC)

"You--" Yuya seethes as Nightshade ducks behind Strange and taunts Peridot with it. It was bad enough that she had him manipulated. But even as her servant, she doesn't regard him as a person. She puts his life on the line like it's nothing, that he's just some puppet that she can tool around with at her desire.

Yuya hates when someone is treated like they're a toy.

Yuya runs to the edge of the circle, gesturing his hands up as he lifts some of the fragments of the rocks scattered on the ground up in the air. At the size of a fist, they're easy for him to maneuver in the air, right at Nightshade without hitting anyone else.

"Don't use him like that! Let him go!"

Peridot's enhanced presence snaps Steven out of his paranoid paralysis, and looks over to see the energy of the Earth Spirit rippling over her, her body part way shifted into her wereform and her casually wielding iron. She's angry. Very angry. He can feel that vividly.

He can also feel how ready to kill she is. He doesn't know how to react to it. It's not like she hadn't tried to kill him before, it isn't like Nightshade isn't trying to hurt them all. Yet, he's so uneasy at all of this. He doesn't want her to fight that battle for him.

He rushes up to her side. He's scared that she'll get hurt, that Strange will get hurt... that someone could make a decision they'll regret later. He's acting on instinct.

"Peridot," he says, and hugs his arms around her waist despite her aura of power. She's angry. Too angry. It isn't right, she isn't focused. "It's okay. I'm here. We're going to make it out together."

Especially if Peridot can use this power right. He knows she can.

She can't compete with that. She doesn't think she wants to, in fact, as she watches Steven do his best to calm the enraged and psuedo-possessed 'were' down. To the side, an angel is distracting Ignatius as well-suddenly it seems as if nothing is certain, but if anything can be 'fixed', the struggle of how to stop Strange safely, while handling Nightshade as well, seems more possible all of a sudden.

...It's still impressively chaotic, and Carly looks back to Prudence and the others with a bit of a nervous expression, as if to say I...Tried???

She does at least bolster up that fire wall. It's better than nothing.

When Strange speaks, Taako recognizes his voice; they had a pretty nice chat when he first arrived, confused, in the carnival.

What is he doing with them...? Is that the role this place stuffed him into? Taako can't help but find it absolutely infuriating that he can't do anything right now-- none of the spells he has access to right now would even put a dent on those guys except for Strange, and Strange... it would suck to have to kill him. He seems chill.

Taako does attempt another spell; there is enough distraction going on right now that maybe he can get away with it this time. He focuses on Strange, and attempts to cast Dominate Person. He doesn't assume he'll be able to overpower the fae's control on him, but it's worth a shot, and if Strange is able to tell that something is being cast on him, at least he can't do nearly as much damage to Taako as Ignatius did.

He thinks so, anyway.

Steven kissed him a while back, but it's only now that Axel blinks awake again. At least he can feel his body, but moving might be asking a little much at the moment. He should be immobilized and in hospital, he should be anywhere but on a battlefield. But here he is.

He lets out a low whistle as Peridot steps out, then looks at Taako out of the corner of his eye, then over at the others. "It might be best not to move me, guys, unless it's a lot safer over there or something. Anyone got time to explain what's going on here?"

Meanwhile, Ignatius is howling in rage at the water that has just been dumped all over him, like a bucket propped over a door. The boat is shredded into pieces between his hands, the metal melting like snow at his touch. As for Iulieal...

If he tried to put that shit in his mouth, he is getting burned, and fast. At the moment, dousing him is mostly just contributing to the confusion of the situation and perhaps buying some time.

Peridot pulls her lips back and hisses at both the fae and her servant, but she's not deterred. Sharp claws on her feet hook in to the ground as the wind gusts past her, making her eyes stream. She's completely hulked out now, half-way between bat and human, which would just be hilariously stupid looking if she wasn't basically making the ground crack beneath her feet with all the power the earth spirit is putting off of her.

Strange. She has enough mind to know that she doesn't really want to kill him, but he at least needs to be dealt with. If anyone's a pest, it's him, she thinks ruefully. A winged-hand flicks up, and the poker freezes in its trajectory, abruptly changes direction--

It's Steven's interference alone that gives her pause. Her weapon trembles, and very nearly clatters to the ground.

"Steven," she growls, and at least for now it's clearly her speaking, even through the Earth Spirit's influence. "I can get us out of here! I just need to take care of these creeps!"

And while Taako is trying one tactic with Strange, someone else is about to try another.

It's been through sheer irritation with the whole matter — now even more so with his real memories falling into place, along with that slowly spreading feeling of rage that no one can quite pinpoint just yet — that Childermass has even managed to come to his senses. Well, that and Steven's help, which, admittedly, did help a lot.

More importantly, with his memories, he's remembered how he really, really doesn't want one very particular smug magician to bite the dust.

So when the idiot steps forward to protect Nightshade, Childermass finally makes an effort to push himself up out of the snow and act, throwing out an arm towards Strange. His shadow stretches, as quickly along the field of white as he can make it, trying to latch onto the mage's own shadow and pull a trick similar to what he'd originally captured Steven in, so very long ago. At least, so he thinks. Did that happen? Did it not?

It doesn't really matter. What does matter is he'll try to drop Strange into his own shadow and drag him all the way over to where he and Lambert had ended up dumped.

You tried Taako, but Nightshade's a true fae and her brainwashing runs deep. The most that happens due to the effects of his spell is an odd look passes over Strange's face for a moment like he can't remember if he left the oven on before he turns back to the fight. And oh look, the werebeast had morals. How cute.

Strange takes a few steps towards Peridot, muttering something under his breath, preparing to cast an incantation...when he just straight up vanishes, thanks to Childermass and his shadow magic. Strange at least manages to get out an undignified yelp before he falls through his shadow, reappearing at the other end of the courtyard, downright confused. Guess who hasn't yet realized that Childermass is conscious?

But hey, that provides a nice handy pathway straight to poor Nightshade if somebody wanted to, I don't know, try and beam her with a poker again.

Iuliael is shrieking counterpoint to the howls, somewhere between shiiiiit and damn you. The portal's not a part of his anatomy and is insensate but it can't protect what it's not covering and he can't have it cover him entirely. That timeless ocean it leads to turns out to be extremely important in some metaphysical sense to him, too. Firey angelic nature or not Ignatius is just way too hot! If Iuliael had been able to get all of him in in an instant it might have been manageable, but even the most glancing contact between the fae lord and the water through in the portal caused some of it to flash to hot steam, and he's scalded. He rises erratically, listing and billowing and weeping gold.

Out: fire thugs! The two lackeys who'd had him pinned earlier are flung out, drenched, onto their master, their flames steaming and spluttering where still alight at all. Iuliael's not really thinking at this point but hey, at least this particular fae isn't participating in the other goings on?

It keeps happening. The pulsing, overflowing wash of spirit that drowns out the fragment he searches for. It floats and hovers there and he tries begging with it-please, he must find it, it's integral! They must find it, or the ritual will be lost! Please!

He begs, until something...clicks. The reason they need the fragment-the connection to the spirit of the Earth, the being whom sits at the center of this entire mess. This overpowering, overwhelming energy that suddenly appeared, drowning out what was barely similar to it...

His eyes snap open, and without even a moment's pause, Gongenzaka has stood up. "...We don't need the pendant!" he announces quickly, shouting not only to Yuugo and the two who brought the Angelic team together, but also Yuuya and all those facing Nightshade now. "PERIDOT!" he shouts, the overwhelming pulse of spirit telling him clearly where it is and who it is. "You and Yuuya both can act as the key! WE JUST NEED THE EARTH SPIRIT!"

"What the fuck?!" is all Nightshade can say on a moment's notice. She gives Peridot one frantic look before poofing into a cloud of purple spores and dispersing into the air.

When Strange disappears in a flurry of shadows Yuya throws his small collection of rocks straight at Nightshade. It's terribly ineffective, because she just evaporates into smoke anyway, but he's pissed.

Thankfully, though, Gon's voice is like some sort of trained response to get Yuya to snap out of his own inner turmoil. He turns his attention up and over his shoulder, his glare shifting into surprise. "We... don't? Peridot has the Earth Spirit?!"

He turns back to her, mouth agape. He didn't even realize the spirit was with them! "We can break the Severing now!"

Lambert wakes up and instantly regrets it.

The amount of pain he's in isn't as bad as it could be, but this is second only to the Trial of Grasses, and that had literally involved mutating his entire body with magic. And -- he remembers that now. Everything.

However, it's all mixed up enough in his head still that when a body suddenly pops up right next to him, particularly when it's the face of someone he last saw trying to kill him, Lambert's body moves before his mind can catch up.

With a surprising amount of strength for a recently-dying man, he slams a fist right into Strange's face.

Edited 2017-07-30 05:02 (UTC)

As if summoned by that revelation, and realizing that his control of the situation has finally slipped, a flock of shadowy crows returns. He has, of course, been waiting at the sidelines - perfectly content to just let his enemies destroy each other. Of course, he hadn't anticipated on them finding a way without him.

He'll take the half form of a man, still partially flapping wings and snapping beaks. He hadn't considered this before, but he overheard Gongenzaka's realization, and now he's fully away of how little time they may have.

"Ignatius," he says. "This feud has gone on long enough. We must take care of this... together."

Edited 2017-07-30 05:05 (UTC)

It's amazing how a grownass man can look so much like a lost puppy. Nightshade's gone? But where did she go? Why'd she leave him? He was doing good, he was about to beat up Peridot, and she just left? What the--

And then Lambert wakes up and socks him in the face. Really, this is enough to just knock Strange out completely and he falls to the floor with a thud. Somebody remember to drag his sorry ass to the Ringmaster for de-brainwashing once the ritual's been completed and everybody's back to the carnival.

Damien and Pru look at each other, shocked. Wait... that's right. Damn, he's right!

"GOT IT," Damien shouts, understanding without any further provocation. "Yuuya, Yuugo - same plan as before, but Peridot with Yuuya. She could work just like the pendant."

Damien doesn't even wait. He's already mucking around with the ritual circle, making sure they are ready to go as of right now.

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