Ana kept up the onslaught, despite the pain. She tried to work in tandem with Hunter, Aedion and Zephyr in order to kill the thing quicker. Neoph seemed to be doing well on his own. Tessa wasn't doing any damage from her position, so she leaped across several rooftops and found a new archer position behind a chimney stack, where she continued to try and inflict damage from a distance. Kala frowned, but turned and with a curt nod, and left. The thought of more things happening to her without her consent was unnerving, but she decided not to focus on it. What was done was done. Now to test out her new-found ability. She put her palm out, pressing it against what she imagined was an invisible wall. It took a few tries, but eventually a corridor of darkness opened. Pleased with herself, she grinned underneath her cowl before stepping in.On the other side was the bustling city of Durlag...now to find her target. She breathed in the heady scents of the city, taking in the crowded streets before heading down a darkened alley. First step was information.
Tessa gently used her thumbs to brush away the tears that Conrad missed before lowering her hands to her lap. "It doesn't help to minimize it as a dream." She murmured, her mind backtracking for a moment to when he had spoken in his sleep, "But it was. Nothing has happened." She smoothed the blankets in front of her for a moment to ease the silence. "I used to have nightmares, too. But whenever it got too real, I would always look for clocks." She smiled slightly, picking at a loose thread in the coverlet. "Have you ever noticed, dreams don't actually have them? It's strange, but it helped. If I couldn't find a clock, then it was a dream." "Nothing to be ashamed of in being frightened of a dream." She added. Conrad looked like he desperately could have used a hug, but Tessa wasn't sure how to go about such an action. She hadn't hugged anyone, besides in greeting, after her parents' accident. "Um....do you need a hug?" she asked, somewhat shyly.
Teliana let Zephyr help her out, but stopped him in the hall. "I can manage it from here. I'm sure it'll be fine." She offered a reassuring smile, keeping her hand firmly pressed to the injury. It really wasn't that big of a deal. "I really don't think we should leave Analise alone..I mean she's unconscious, and that Lucas guy just left her, and I'm really worried that that Isabela woman is up to no good. If I had my magic...." she sighed, grimacing. "None of this would be an issue. But here, do you have a weapon?" She withdrew her dagger, and offered it to Zephyr. "If you could get that girl somewhere safe, I would really owe you." Or else one of us could try to track down Lucas, or another person. That woman is a menace. But perhaps she was overreacting. She voiced this thought with a blush, still holding the dagger out. "Maybe I'm overreacting. I just worry about my fellow mages. Especially here." @Takeru Tenkuji @Aelin FireHeart @Glen
Reasons to get an Xbox One? None. Absolutely none. Unless you like the taste of disappointment.
"We...shouldn't leave her alone with him." Is what Zack tried to say. Instead it came out as "We shood lave he alune," before the rest turned to gibberish. It seemed the amount of alcohol he had consumed had finally caught up with him. His eyes struggled to stay open, and his mouth drooped a little as he drooled on the corner of Bryce's shirt. Some part of him knew he wouldn't remember any of this, but he couldn't help but feel a little ashamed that he had gotten to this state. No matter how bad things got, he shouldn't just give in to the darkness. But he did, every single time. How much longer before a witcher finished what they started, or he let slip what he was? And these were the lasts thoughts in poor Zack's mind as he passed out. "For all the bleeding gods..." Bryce sighed as first Zack made a poor attempt to speak, before openly drooling on his shirt. "That's very kind of you." He told the nearly unconscious doppler, almost the second said doppler nearly hit the ground. "Gods damn all the f*cking barrels of bleeding and twiced f*cked alcohol you decided to drink." He swore impressively, before determinedly wrapping an arm around Zack and hoisting him up. This forced him to sheath his sword, but since Seth had decided to stick with him, he was going to have to be the bodyguard. "Watch my back." He told the other doppler gruffly before swinging around the corner. Once out of sight of the townspeople, he stepped to a nearly hidden door, painted the same color as the wall, and rapped on it in a special rhythm, grunting as Zack nearly slipped from his grasp. The door was swung open, the person who watched it standing behind the wooden barrier to keep themselves from being revealed. Bryce thanked them quietly before continuing on, towards the sewer hole that led to their underground city, their Sanctuary. This too was guarded by an undercover doppler, who turned away as Bryce kicked open the metal covering, grimacing at the newly created pain in his foot. He was half tempted to throw Zack down, but that wouldn't end well. "Hey." He turned to Seth. "Can you hold him until I get down there, and then toss him to me? They," he indicated the two dopplers, "can't leave their post." He should know, he gave the orders himself.
-Kai's House-Tessa dragged her head outside the blanket, cursing as it tangled around her head. "Uh...yeah! Fine! Uh..." She tried to yank the covers off of herself in order to grab the jeans and sweater that lay on the ground as her brain struggled to answer Pyrrha. "Uh, yeah?" She suggested, hoping somehow she made sense as stars twinkled in her eyes and her head spun. She smacked her knee against something sharp and hissed, swearing under her breath as she yanked the jeans on, one leg at a time. -Hallway outside the Space Engineering Club Room-Sara peered around the corner before tip toeing as best she could down the hall. She didn't know where she was going, and she maybe might have kind of only slightly been lost. But all roads led to Rome, right? There had to be a map or something....she turned, hearing a noise behind her before smacking into Rosalina, whom she somehow hadn't noticed was standing there. "Sorry!" she apologized, jumping back and straightening herself with an exasperated sigh. "I got a little lost and distracted, I didn't see you." She smiled, embarrassed as she rubbed her head, flushing slightly. What a way to make an entrance. By way of clumsy airheaded struggles. "I'm Sara, I don't we've met. Are you looking for the gym too?" It wasn't exactly what she was looking for, but it was as good an excuse as any. And she did desperately need a work out....
"Teliana. Ana for short. Pleasure." She said with a half grin in Zephyr's direction before grimacing. "It's just a flesh wound. I'm invincible." She continued in a joking tone as her creator inserted an awesome reference. "I'd rather focus on figuring how to get the lovely scientist out and away. Or somehow keep us safe." The more she sat there, thinking about Isabela's words, the more creeped out Ana became. She was not safe here, and neither was Analise. Probably not her new acquaintance, Zephyr, either. "Any ideas?" She spoke quietly, hoping to keep the conversation between them. It wasn't as if they had any back up, and without her own magic, she wasn't sure how useful she would be in a fight. @Aelin FireHeart @Takeru Tenkuji
Finding Nemo He had traveled through oceans, across vast distances and through dangers his tiny mind had never dreamed of. All for this. The fish swam through the waving wands of the anemone, fins fluttering in the waves created by the ever moving current of the ocean. He felt, rather then heard, the entrance of his son. His only son. "I like Nemo." The voice of his past mate seemed to echo around their small, coral colored home. Or perhaps it was the recesses of his mind. He could never tell. "Welcome home, Nemo." To his fishy ears, his voice didn't sound strange, didn't reflect the way he felt. "Um...Dad? You sound a little funny. Are you getting sick? Cuz Mister Ray has this great cure for colds and-" "I'm not sick." Try as he might, he couldn't sense the difference. Perhaps it took a pair of outside ears. Ears that hadn't heard his voice in a while. "I'm different. The journey changed me, Nemo. I understand now." Marlin turned to face the younger clownfish. "I was too hard on you, but it was for your own good. You see....we complete each other. We're meant for each other." Nemo looked uncomfortabley from side to side before settling on a forced laugh. "Okay dad, very funny. Where's the joke?" Marlin couldn't help but smile fondly. So young still, and so naive. But Nemo would learn. Nature was forcing Marlin's hand, so it wasn't really his fault, was it? "Nemo, you'll understand in time." He swam closer, forcing Nemo to back up to the wall of anemones. "Don't worry. Daddy's here." Nemo made some sort of noise, his misshapen fin working overtime to keep his body aloft. Together, they would rebuild the family. "Daddy's here." @Vladimir Makarov
Conrad was not one for sleeping peacefully. Tessa watched from her guarded position as he tossed and turned, muttering phrases in his clearly not sound sleep. Tessa considered trying to wake him, but just as she reached out to touch him, he started screaming. She was knocked off the bed, and tumbled onto the floor, bumping her head against the wood. Rubbing the sore spot, she sat up, pulling herself up by the edge of the bed. "Conrad. Hey, Conrad." She sat back down in front of him, hesitating for a single moment before grabbing his face with her hands, to make him focus on her. "Hey. It was just a dream. It wasn't real." There was time enough to ask him about Abigail, whoever she was, later. Right now she needed to keep him from knocking her into next week. As she tried to forget she had done that to him only hours ago.
I take this to mean you want to live vicariously through one of us? You know who else does that? Demons. By possessing people.
It has that stupid memories thing "This is what you did on this day last year".
"Um...I don't think I want to put this on right now...No offense..." Tessa backed away slightly from the bottle, making sure the spraying mechanism was pointed away from her in case Akari slipped. "Hunter was bugging Adelina, but I'm not sure where he took off to." She paused, ignoring Zack's face when the other man was mentioned. "Do you want me to go find him?" She asked, somewhat nervously. Need to stand up to him. She reminded herself. He's not that scary. Zack smiled when Akari picked up on his joke, but frowned when Hunter was mentioned. "We don't need him here." He said abruptly, crossing his arms over his chest. Although....if he wasn't here, was he bothering Adelina again? No...No even Hunter knew when enough was enough, right? All the same, now that the thought had crossed through Zack's head, it wouldn't leave him alone. "Maybe we both should go look for him. He emphasized, frowning at Tessa as she avoided his gaze. Sure, she wanted to stand up to Hunter and prove herself a viable Scout, but she didn't need to protect Adelina. That was his job, as her....wait, what was he to her? Veera could do nothing as she was dragged through the town towards the building. She managed to keep fear from setting in right up until the door slammed shut behind them. Drake was knocked out cold, leaving her alone to be interrogated. As the enemy scouts tied them up, she felt shivers run through her and shut her eyes, reopening them only when the cold steel of the dagger was pressed to her throat. "You son of a bittch." She whispered, unable to manage more then that as her palms sweat and her stomach clenched. "You'll get nothing from me." Drake why did you have to leave me alone with this? She bit her lip, heart beat pounding in her ears. It felt like that was the only sound in the entire room. "Ah, well. That's unfortunate for you." The leader finally replied as he flipped the knife and drew back, smashing the pommel into her wound. Veera sucked in her breath before screaming as the knife blade was duck into the already throbbing wound. She didn't remember her legs giving out, but they must have as her arms protested the strain of supporting her entire body. There was a pause, and then a sensation of warmth running down her arm as the sensation of stinging grew into unimaginable pain. She refused to look up as the man cut into her arm. "Maybe when you're done using me as your art pad, you could get me some water. Kind of thirsty." She whispered before screaming as the blade plunged into her arm, burying itself inside her muscle. At this point, it wouldn't be far off to hope he hit an artery, or she bled out from her previous injury.
Teliana gave a shaky laugh, clenching the vampire's dagger tightly in her hand. "Nor what I was expecting when I rolled out of bed this morning." she returned, looking down at the ground. Only, that reminded her of what had just transpired, and so she looked at her clothing, most of which was ruined, before glancing at the growing crowd. "Could we maybe go someplace more private? I still need to mix up the potion for you, and I'd rather not do it dressed like....this." She gestured at herself, stowing the dagger in her satchel as she did so. "Thank you." she added in a quieter tone as she got to her feet. It was a humbling moment, the second one for that day. If this kept up she would begin to think she was somewhat of a worthless mage after all. She glanced at Zach once, before looking away. "So...your place? Or mine?"
Holy fu-Her thoughts were cut off by another hand wrapping its bony fingers around her arm. Not quite decomposed fingers. She swallowed a scream as another grabbed her foot, effectively holding her down. Fire burst her through skin, trying to burn through the dead, cold flesh that clung to hers. Unfortunately for her, fire didn't burn through rotting bodies that had been buried, nearly as well as it did on the ones above ground. Solomon. "You rotten son of a bitch." She tired again, the flames rising higher around her body as a muffled whimper slipped past her lips. The fingers were not prepared to let go of her any time soon, even though the necromancer was gone. She inched her hand slowly towards the dagger at her side, her fingers slipping on the handle. Just a little bit more. She managed to swipe the handle and stab at the bony hand grasping her arm. It did a little more damage then the fire, but there was one problem. Her laugh turned into a shriek as the hand came off the rotting arm, still digging its fingers into her flesh. Her other hand was still held captive as the hand began to crawl up her arm, and she could only watch it, unable to stop it.
"Yes, thank you. I needed reminding." Teliana snapped at Solomon, lowering her hand with the dagger. He too was playing with his cards close to his chest. Fine. She knelt down in front of him, still warily keeping her distance, but close enough she could reach out to help him up, if she chose. "What is your name?" was her next question, as she gently laid the dagger on the ground next to her. Her skin tingled, the power of fire not far from her reach. She couldn't, wouldn't trust this man. "I very much doubt he was chasing you in order to simply drink from you." She murmured, more to herself. It wouldn't have been all too hard to subdue him. A mage, however strong, would be no match for the physical prowess of a vampire. "So, ready to tell the truth?" Tessa, in the bat of an eye, grabbed Seth's arm and turned, bringing it down over her shoulder. Not quite hard enough to crack, but she then stomped on his foot, and elbowed him in the stomach with the other hand before stepping away to review the damage. "That wasn't polite." She said sweetly, brushing off her dress before stepping up to Zack and hugging him, with much better results. The last one was Callum. She looked up into his yellow eyes, frowning slightly. "You guys killed my parents, you know." She said sadly, but nonetheless wrapping her arms around Callum. "But I can tell you're sorry." She stepped back, her shoulders slumping a little. "Maybe my parents deserved it. Maybe they were bad. I don't remember." She shrugged. "But it's all in the past!" Tessa said more brightly, nodding to Bryce's question before casting an exasperated eye over Zack. Men, they never learn. "So, what's your name?" She asked Callum, turning so she could see if Seth left. While she hoped he had learned his lesson, she didn't want to give him an excuse to grab her again. That kind of hurt. Zack accepted the hug, blinking in surprise before watching the girl go to the witcher. Having had completely missed what Seth had done, he became more distressed as Tessa moved closer to Callum. Wait, why was she hugging him? He would kill her! Zack started forward, but a wave of nausea rendered him useless. He dropped to his knees, hand over his mouth to struggle from losing his rather liquid meal. Bryce tensed at Seth's actions, but relaxed after Tessa handled the situation. "Never bother a barmaid." He muttered, hand tightening on the pommel of his sword as the foolish girl went to hug the witcher. He was distracted from hearing her words as Zack fell to his knees, nearly retching. "Come on, you.' We'll get you to bed shortly." He pulled Zack to his feet, holding the fellow doppler slightly away from himself in case the poor kid did decide to puke. "We're going inside now. Witchers aren't allowed. Tessa, maybe you should stay here." He hated leaving the girl, but it wouldn't be for long, and she hated being behind walls. He waited for her nod, before turning and dragging Zack away. "Coming, Seth?"
-Kai's House-Tessa blinked, turning her head slightly. For a moment, she had thought someone was entering the room. She hesitated a while longer, frozen, like a rabbit scenting a possible predator. You're just imagining things. She told herself, turning back to her stash. She could stare at it all day, but staring at it wouldn't get it into her system. The longer she stared at the pile of powder, the more her mouth watered. And down the rabbit hole we go. A couple of sniffs later, she wiped her nose on her sleeve and curled up underneath the blankets of her makeshift nest, enjoying the feel of the fabric against her skin. It was so.....soft. "Twinkle twinkle." She whispered, tangling her fingers in her own hair, admiring the sensation of the silken strands between her digits next. Everything was soft. "Did I have something to do today?" She wondered aloud, curling her legs in tighter to her body. It may have been cold, wearing only a tshirt, but she didn't really care. Did she? Nah. "I don't think I did." She decided, tired but keeping her eyes open to stare at the walls. They were...intriguing. The color, the shape, the texture. It was all beautiful, somehow.
This is my own personal reminder to stay off of Facebook today. Consider myself reminded.
Teliana sighed with relief. She looked down at the dagger as the fire faded, her hands shaking. She had only suspected the man of being a doppler, but a vampire? "Prince..." she bit her lip and clenched her hand around the dagger. A powerful vampire. F*cking fantastic. "What have you done, Ana?" She groaned, before turning to the mage, Solomon. Brother in arms or not, he was still a necromancer, and she didn't trust him. "I may be inclined to help you up, after you answer a few of my questions. I have some healing items back in my home that you may use, as well. But first." She pointed the dagger towards him, hand still shaking slightly. "Where did you learn necromancy? Why did you choose to teleport here? And why is that vampire following you?" If she was smart, she would ditch the knife in the river before Vyle decided to come back and claim it. She was skilled, but it would tell a lot more then hell fire to rid the world of a High Vampire.
