lostcarnival | ⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

Susan's flame attacks make powerful strikes against the vines blocking the archway - yet, somehow, they are not as effective as they usually would be against plant matter. The plant life seems resistant, somehow - strengthened by the faerie magic, perhaps, so that what would have been devastating under other circumstances is ending up a bit grueling to get through.

Worse, the creatures are getting agitated. Looking at Susan in particular, three of them lash out with whips. Fire or no fire, they want this destruction to stop.

The first whip will almost certainly get a hold of Susan's leg, but the second will be possible to wriggle out of, if you don't mind a few cuts. The third Susan will be able to blast away entirely with fire, sending the creature sprawling as well.

Edited 2018-05-14 20:37 (UTC)

Well, that answers Steven's question. "Not too scared!" Joker says as he jolts forward to grab Susan's shirt, although he mentally adds but they will be after long enough. They'd run when that one had died, so...

"Someone want ta take them out?" he yells as he makes sure he doesn't lose the boy, even while Feathers screeches to dive down again. He doesn't want to exhaust his bird too much, after all.

Yuya cringes when the creatures lash out, holding his staff tightly and tilting it up as he projects a sizable shield, a sort of translucent dome. He should have figured the fire wouldn't be as effective here, either, and they may be delayed to run anyway.

"Here!" He waves his hand. "I'll keep it safe over here."

That way anyone not immediately attacking, or who needs to retreat has cover. Yeah, Yuya can handle this.

He realizes maybe he should have drawn a ward before getting on Lion, and glances around like he's considering that. He'd have to drop his shield, however, and that's a little quicker protection.

He supposed it was too much to ask that they wouldn't attack. With Susan on his back he can't really help his brother, but he turns his head, trying to bit through the vines around his brothers leg, Susan has mage armor, and a dagger of his own, so as soon as he's loose Lauren plans on running away before more vines can wrap around him.

Steven may have spoken too soon. Gongenzaka growls as the plants move, standing defensively between them and those on the lion in particular. With a grunt, he moves as though he intends to activate the repulsor arm- but instead the vines from his back respond, greeting their enemies with his own. A figurative arm wrestle, one could say...as he makes certain to steady a stance for the sake of his belt. While a few move to try and pull free the ones at Susan's leg, others move to greet any other lashing whips that come their way.

"KH...If you intend to come for those under our protection...THEN YOU SHALL HAVE TO ANSWER TO US!" He could have just said himself, but...

...Well frankly, aside from how capable everyone is for the most part, Susan just torched one of these things sprawling. So 'us' is probably more accurate than 'me'.

Don't worry, I got this has likely been someone's last words at some point in the carnival and had a feeling fire wouldn't really do the trick. The creatures seem irritated, from reading body language alone, and when the vines morph out to attack and ensnare around Susan, he'll watch Joker plunge headfirst into danger again.

It's give and take it seems and he'll shut one eye at Gon's sudden proclamation, one ear bending back at the sound. He'll never understand the speeches, the winding tones of proclamation, or the need to belt out useless words in a fight to when it comes to would be helpers. It only draws attention to them, with little to no effort of solving a problem, and for people like Tyki, it made him always want to make them suffer for. For Gon, it is likely thankful that Tyki is on their side, his stride carrying him forward to grasp at the vine around Susan's leg. He's going to give it a rather vicious yank in their direction.

"I'm assuming you mean the vines and not the creatures. If you attack one, you may as well attack all of them."

Papyrus goes quiet and unhappy with how much he agrees with Hinawa. There's ways to get past fae prisoners besides killing them - didn't they all learn that back in the Manor? Didn't everyone go to a lot of effort to save his brother? But... it's different, when it's a friend.

Either way, he frames the path ahead of them with walls of blue bones, forming a wedge that presses forward to knock the plants back - unless those plants are so driven by the need to attack that they don't flinch away from the hurt.

"If they're unconscious, they can't fight, right??" He calls out. Are fae-boosted plant people, so messed up that they hardly communicate and just attack, too strong for his usual knockout tactics? Only one way to find out: try his best to bring them to the edge of life, past the life of consciousness.

With the help of Tyki and Gongenzaka, Susan will manage to get free of the vines, allowing Lauren to carry him away from the combat. The creature attached to the whip will be pulled off the vines and land on its face. Papyrus will manage to knock out the creature that was previously scorched by flames, but the others will not go down so easily.

However, as the ground begins to shake, it may become clear that the creatures don't need to succeed. They only need to buy time.

Cracks begin to form across the stone floor, centralized at a point in the middle of the room. It's now that the creatures start to get excited. Even more than before, they will throw themselves at the group, as if trying to force them back from the door and towards the hole forming in the floor. The stone begins to go soft, shattering into such fine pieces that it runs like soil.

Lion roars a sonic boom in the direction of the rose creatures, but his intentions are already shifting. Mostly because, as the floor begins to break and shift, Steven's face has gone pale with fear.

"W-We..." he tries, but his voice gets caught in his throat. "Y-You guys need to get out of here! That's her! She's coming."

Except, Lion doesn't take that the way that Steven intended. Instead of combining forces with the other people that need to flee, Lion turns from the group and begins to dash away, creating another portal. It only takes a moment for Steven to realize what he's doing.

"LION, NO!" Steven yells, but it's too late. Lion disappears through the portal, and takes all his riders with him.

Joker doesn't think twice as the ground shakes beneath him.

All he does is wrap his arms fully around Susan and bend his knees before launching into the air, wings flapping violently to propel him upwards. It's only with his feet off the floor, joining feathers in the air, does he start to yell out orders.

"Lauren, back, now! Tyki, grab him!" Which leaves- shit, Gongenzaka is far too large to be carried, and Lion is already out of the place. There's only one thing for it.

"Feathers, Leaf again!" He lowers his voice a little, although still loud, with his next orders. "Susan, fire again! We need a path for Zaka!"

Feathers is already unleashing another storm of leaves towards the creatures and their vines, trying to get them out.

"MNH-!? Yuuya-!" Gongenzaka admittedly has a bit of a bias when it comes to the group suddenly rushing away- not to say he isn't quick to turn and reach for where the entire group went. "Steven! Miss Hinawa..!" Such distraction can only last for a moment- it does not take long to realize that the ground beneath his paws and hooves is rather suddenly growing soft, and as he glances down he yelps- somewhat comically jumping back.

"S-Shoot..!" It's trickier to re-find grip on dirt, but if he just thinks of it as sand it's easy enough to start turning around to try and regroup with the others. Steven and Yuuya should be back at the trailers, he wants to think. It's fine. It's...

He tries not to think about the fact that Sans himself was having trouble- after all, Lion vanished in a portal just now, but...

Focus, he reminds himself, galloping awkwardly in the same way he would along a typical dirt path. He growls at the creatures throwing themselves their way, bodily shaking off what manages to actually reach him, and attempting to use his vines to keep them off the others until they're safely out of reach from the plants. Yuuya will be fine. Steven, Hinawa, Lion, will be fine.

...

They'll be fine.

When Joker grabs him and pulls him into the air, Susan is surprised at first, but after a moment he flaps his own wings before trying to squirm away.

"I can fly too! I just, can't carry anyone." Which sucks, but whatever. It's what happens when you're small he guesses.

He keeps an eye on Lauren from the air, so he can be careful not to hit him with his fire, and once he's sure his brother is out of the way he throws more fire at the vines, a stronger attack this time, and for the first time in his life he can't help but wish his magic would go out of control and bring even more fire exploding down on them.

Well fuck. Everything always escalates so quickly and he's obeying instantly with his hand outreaching towards Lauren. He snatches him up with one hand, not caring how much fur he has to grab even if it is in handfuls. Lions have scruffs and he reaches out to grab whatever he has to in order to pull him up with him.

His Power to Choose activates as he chooses not to touch the air beneath his feet. He pulls himself upwards along with his passenger, high above the ground with a startled expression. It evens out, reminding himself to remain calm and his eyes focus on the ground beneath him.

"Jump to me or grab onto me!" he commands towards Gon, his other hand outstretched, "I can carry you if you reach." It's self serving more than self preserving. He'll rely on Gon to reach him if he wants to save his own skin and also to dispatch his own roses clinging to him.

Finally, the shifting of earth stops. From the center of the room, she emerges, like a hideously angry flower. Dual sabers cut through the dirt, allowing her to come from beneath - she looks much the same as before, except somehow palette swapped. Her hair has gone white instead of red, and instead of a simple white stress, she is wearing black armor with elegant white dressings.

Her eyes are rose red as she sets her sights on them. The first step she takes from the earth causes an explosion of plant life, vines and grass growing so rapidly as to cover the ground. Dozens of roses go into bloom as quickly as you can take a breath.

She's looking for something, something she doesn't see. It angers her.

"Surrender to me, beast-kin" she demands, pointing one of her cruel looking sabers in their direction.

Susan doesn't really know who she is, other than a bad guy, but that doesn't stop him from giving her a disapproving look at her demand.

"Why would we do that? That's stupid."

Lauren roars in anger at the suggestion they surrender, before shifting back to his usual form. Now that they have a real target he can do much more damage like this. Gesturing with his hands he casts a spell and suddenly the earth at the fae's feet erupts around her. And if that doesn't work he's happy to try something else.

Jump, or grab. He nods, and though he moves as if to consider jumping, doesn't do the first at all- no, he remembers rather quickly how pathetic a 'hop' that tends to create, if he hasn't got a running start. But he has his vines after all-and if Tyki thinks that grabbing will do it, then-

His vines falter, as the shifting earth ceases to bring forth the Queen herself. The sudden burst of growth throws him off-perhaps not physically, but rather mentally, and he cannot help but feel a tremor of dread.

Despite that dread, he manages to pull within himself an ounce of courage for one reason, and one only- this is the one who is trying to find Steven- the one who will no doubt cut through everyone else in the room if she must.

Therefore, he instead straightens himself as best he can. His leaves and flowers rustling, his body tense- "...To surrender to you now, would be entirely unforgivable to myself..!" he instead shouts, hoping to take her attention for at least a moment. He swore he saw the fire do something, earlier-if it was at least enough for Some to escape, well...

He stares defiantly, and does his best not to move an inch. (It might be hard, what with all the plants that are growing after all.)

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