[Chapter 1.03] Quoth the Heroes "Forevermore"

[Intimate Ink]

Character Name: Vesper Cabello
Date | Time: November 6th, ~11:45
Location: Johtan Wilderness Campsite - Anachem Outskirts
Wearing: As pictured
Tagging: Everyone, Meena | Mentioning:



Vesper’s mind – no, it was somewhere deeper than Vesper’s mind, but something in the fabric of his being – felt shaken by the Nevermore’s cry. What had felt like a victory a moment ago, with his shouting of the creature’s weakness, now made him feel crumpled. Everything seemed to slow down, bogged down in dread. Even as he saw Meean knocked from safety, what should have been a reflex to save her felt sluggish. He did nothing… he could do nothing.

The horrible sound slowly faded away, shadows in his eyes receding, though it didn’t fully release his will from malaise: he found the urge to move again, but with effort. Of course, by the time he did, it was too late… depending on how one looked at it, Meena was either saved by any means necessary, or suspended in mid-air like a metal-skewered offering to either the Nevermore or gravity itself. (Not that Vesper couldn't step back and see the great virtue in the actions, yet his clouded mind still struggled to cling onto the hopeful and positive.)

“N… no…,” Vesper stuttered out, fighting through the haze that seemed to even affect his vision as he searched for a rope in what should have been an obvious place – a caravan and convoy. There were plenty around. He bit through his lip to make it bleed, something to startle him away from his sense of being worn away to useless pebbles. Securing the rope to himself, he fought to throw the other end to his stranded teammate and team leader.

This was… definitely a plan. Vesper inhaled softly. He focused on the remaining specks of dread the Nevermore inspired in him and took a foolish leap, hoping to use the force from his own fall to prevent Meena from plummeting endlessly. The jump felt comparatively easy compared to the more forceful actions, thanks to the lingering nervous-depressing effect of the bird. Aiming to swing past Meena from the opposite side and ensure that they both landed back safely, Vesper took an exhilarating breath. He briefly locked eyes with her, seeing the strength of team gRAVIty in them. He focused on it in an attempt to end the last of the cries’ effect

Assuming they both landed safely, Vesper worked to free them from their no-longer useful bonds, hoping to prevent the rope from becoming more of a liability in the following moments.

[Aethyrium]

Velvet Smoke

Wearing
This

Artanis Mellow

Wearing
This

11.06, ~9:15pm | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Chee, Doya, Farrah

To call Velvet a slippery opponent would be like calling a desert dry. A hispo lunged at her, and Velvet’s body collapsed into the void, only to appear a dozen feet away, mid-attack against another, while the first skidded confused through empty air. Unfortunately, because of the haphazard combat going on, Velvet hadn’t seen one of the charging hispo when she blinked right into its path. She’d avoided one collision, just to end up in another. The hispo tripped over her, and they both went toppling to the ground. Her staff fell a few feet away, and leaving Velvet to ineffectually scramble to defend herself as the creature barked and chomped at her - it handled the dissimulation of collision much more gracefully. Green sparks filled the air before she was able to dislodge it from her and scramble to her feet. When it spun around and went to bite her again, it got a mouth full of staff that shattered its jaw.

But was that enough to stop the Hollow? Of course not. It yelped, but dug its claws into the ground and jerked its head rapidly side to side like an angry dog with a toy, jostling her around. She blinked again, manifesting behind it without her staff, and grabbed it by the tail giving it a firm yank that swept its rear legs out from it. It dropped Lung’bo, and tried to curl around to claw at her, but she blinked back to its front, snatching the staff out of the air before it could hit the ground - leaving the hispo swiping at nothing. She began to twirl it, vanished, and reappeared along its side, bringing the heavy staff down over her head down across its back, cracking its spine and ending its life - if it had such a thing. “Bridge?” She questioned, hearing Chee’s call. Velvet spun and peered at her teammate locked in engagement on the bridge. Not that she doubted Doya’s skill - if anyone was going to make it out of this nightmare, Velvet would put all her cor on Doya - but she did seem like she was going to get overrun.

Velvet hit the nodes that sent her weapon into its transformation, and then hurled it as high into the air as she could while it reconfigured into its sniper mode. She staggered back two steps and threw a palm forward, bopping another hispo in the nose to stop its lunge for her. A second came from behind, and Velvet avoided it by putting all her weight on the first’s head and hand springing over it - causing them to collide angrily. Yet another was right where she landed and took a swipe at her, Velvet yelped and took a page from Shir’s book, grabbing its arm and riding the swipe so that it shifted her to the side. Then, when grounded, she twisted her grip and continued the spin with her own force, tugging the hispo up and throwing it into one of the newly erected pillars. Lung'bo stopped ascending, fully transformed, and gravity started bringing it back down to earth.

Running to meet one of the hispo’s lunges head on, Velvet jumped and rolled onto her side, spinning. Another lunged at her from behind, together they’d have pincered her on the front and back, twisting her apart. But through a flurry of her own air, as her body twisted and she looked up to see her weapon, Velvet called her shimmer again and vanished - both hispo missing and skidding after hitting air. Velvet rematerialized twenty or so feet into the air, hands around Lung’bo. She continued her spin with it, lining it up with her eye. As her spin had her facing the bridge, she was already looking through the scope and found her target. Without hesitation, she squeezed the trigger and loosed a round that sailed into the distance. The bullet ripped through the chest of the crinos engaged with Doya - little more than an annoyance to the great creature - but erupted from the otherside just in time to nail a hispo in the skull and end its life. Still falling, Velvet caught the top of one of the pillars in her gaze and poof, she was kneeling on it. She was mid-clicking out the casing of the shot. It pinged off the side, bouncing off the pillar as she lined up another shot and murdered another hispo headed for Doya.

There wasn’t enough power in the two weapons to carry them both. Artanis watched as Meena soared away from him and briefly closed his eyes. It wasn’t for her - well, it wasn’t not for her - but it had been for Farrah. And maybe for gRAVIty as a whole. But mostly Farrah. She’d already lost a partner, he didn’t want her to have to suffer that again. No one deserved that. Especially not his… Friend? He sneered, even as Meena faded from view as he was swallowed by the darkness of the chasm.

Despite the heroics of it, Artanis had not done this without a plan. Normally, Artanis was of the opinion that people needed to be able to handle themselves, and their failings were not his problem. But in practice that was hard to do. Meena had been disoriented, and that meant she likely was going to be unable to recover. Meanwhile, Artanis had a fair bit of confidence in his ability to at least try. The truth was there hadn’t been a lot of time to think it through, he had needed to act. At the end of the day, Artanis just believed that he was more capable of managing the fall than a disoriented Meena. His plan was not intended as self-sacrifice, just playing the odds.

Of course, as he gained speed and continued falling, it was hard to know if he had misjudged himself.

Artanis didn’t want to die. How long had he been falling now? Eight… Nine… Ten… Cub had said it was deeper than a mile at least. He didn’t have long to act. Eyes opening, Artanis rolled onto his back to give himself as much surface area as possible. He reached into a little snap-leather case on his belt and pulled out a white Arcanite crystal. He took a deep breath and shifted so he was in a sort of diagonal ‘sitting’ position. He held the crystal out in front of himself and then grabbed his wrist with his other arm to brace it. Swallowing, Artanis began to channel his Soul into the crystal. It began to hum and vibrate with intensity, as he ignited its raw elemental power. But Artanis wasn’t looking for control. In fact, he was only looking for raw power. Green energy crackled around him and drained as it filled the crystal, so far it became yellow, and he kept charging it. The crystal began to crack, and the strain of holding it together grew and grew. He grit his teeth, and he forced so much Soul into it that his snapped orange.

That was the end, the ignited chaos burst. The crystal detonated in his hand like a grenade. The force of the wind snapped his wrist backward. The powerful vibration rolled through the hollow of his bone and splintered up his forearm, shattering his elbow, and up into his upper arm, breaking that into larger chunks, before ultimately ripping it out of its shoulder socket. Artanis screamed in agony. But the sound was drowned out by the sonic boom of the burst of air that erupted from the crystal, more or less focused like he had planned. Of course the boom didn’t travel vertically far, and was drowned out entirely before ever hitting the bridge to be heard by others.

What it did do though was send Artanis streaking backward across the chasm. They weren’t quiet half way across, so Artanis aimed to shoot himself back the way they had come, toward the wall. Twenty-five hundred feet or so, on the one burst. He whipped through the air like a lightless shooting star, but the power didn’t carry him the full way - it simply wasn’t enough. But it did set him on the right trajectory. As Artanis began to arc down, he did so at an angle that eventually had him forcefully and unexpectedly slam into the solid earth of the wall. The wind knocked out of his lungs, he bounced off the wall and, flailing, resumed falling straight down the sheer edge of the cliff, hurrying toward the bottom which could sneak up on his just as fast as the wall had.

[Aethyrium]

Azir Venris Kil-Mitter

Wearing
As pictured

Cub Coran

Wearing
This

11.06, 11:45pm | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Haimehen, Meena, Vesper, Lyra

The sudden jerk of the cable going taut made Cub grunt and whine, as he swung under the pass. Still he managed to breath out a small sigh of relief that he hadn’t gone further. That didn’t last long though as he saw ahead the wagon cratering over the edge into the darkness. Was that… Haimehen? Before he could really parse what was going on there was a tiny humanoid being flung through the air in his direction. It never occurred to Cub not to try and catch it, but he sure as hell didn’t know how he was going to do it. Throwing his weight against the line, Cub rocked toward the arch of the girl. He dropped his gun and caught it between his ankles. Unfortunately, as the girl hit his side and he wrapped an arm around her, the jostling set the gun toppling over his feet. He flailed, trying to kick it, but only managed to shift it away from him and it quickly fell into the dark, vanishing forever. “Aw man, not again…” He groaned, peering after it. Grimacing, he looked at the kid and gave her a little squeeze. The cable would hold, but there was no way he was going to be able to climb with her in one hand and the gun in the other - they were stuck like this until someone came and saved them. Which was a problem, he thought, looking toward the bird as it circled back around.

“ARTANIS!” Azir shouted, having turned around just in time to see him throwing himself off the bridge. It was such, by his estimation, an uncharacteristic move, he was shocked into a second of inaction. He rushed back toward the last wagon, watching as he wrestled with Meena in the air and then… And then she rocketed it up. Azir’s attention followed Meena for a second, but then moved back to find his teammate who was just… Gone. His heart raced. There was nothing to be done about it, he could mourn later. Azir turned his attention back to Meena, just in time to see Vesper handling that - good.

Bird.

Azir’s attention snapped up to Lyra as she called for him - at first, panic tensed him, wondering what could be happening. But she was fine. He nodded even before she asked for his trust - didn’t she know she already had that? Azir turned around and found the Nevermore flapping in the distance. He grunted and tossed Hurricane up, reversing his grip. It was strange to hold an enormous lance like a javelin, but it actually wasn’t terribly unfamiliar for Azir. The forward weight of it strained his arm, but he locked his arm and shifted back to compensate. Shuffling back, Azir gave himself enough room to take aim and get a couple steps of momentum. Azir pulled his arm back and took three powerful bounds forward before hurling it forward - the Nevermore was entirely too far away for him to hit naturally, but Hurricane was designed with these sorts of things in mind. As it left his hand the rear tubes ignited like they had before, turning it into a missile of sorts that he lobbed with shocking accuracy through the air.

How he was going to get it back after this, if it fell into the chasm, was beyond him, but he didn’t think that mattered in the face of making sure everyone got out of this alive. What was a lost weapon, even if it was irreplaceable, compared to the loss of Artanis?

The crack of thunder from the makeshift storm drew his eyes away from the missile to what Lyra was doing, and he watched as the bolt ripped through the air, sizzling the air. For a second he was surprised by her power. As the tendrils wrapped around Hurricane they twisted into an electricity spiral that danced around it, forming tight twists as Hurricane’s drill-like form rapidly twisted.

[Aethyrium]

Nevermore

S T O R Y T E L L E R
November 6th, (~9:15pm) | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Next Post: 4.29.24 | Farrah, Marlowe, Lyreilynn, Haimehen, Meena, Vesper, Chee, Irona, Velvet, Doya, Azir, Artanis, CubThe Nevermore beat its wings heavily, carrying it away from Needlepass. It barely recognized that there was a pitiful elf crawling along its back. Barely wasn’t not at all though. It screeched in annoyance and shuddered in its path, attempting to shake free the flea that dared mount it. As might have been expected, up close like this, the Nevermore showed traits that were distinguished from a traditional specimen. Boney, spur like protrusions jut out of its body, subtly hidden by feathers - Haim learned that the first time as his palm scraped across one of them tips. The creature began its wide circle, turning back for the pass, where it would ultimately deal with the nuisance. Another heavy, perhaps even harder than before, wingbeat sent the bird surging back for the bridge.

But the pain of the shard of Arcanite being driven into its neck caused it to shriek, and curl suddenly upward, exposing its belly to the bridge. The hunk of Arcanite vibrated with the power pulled into it. Haim’s soul flickered as he forced energy into its ignition and channeled more and more through it. The sound there was deafening. It rattled the creature’s hollow core, and saw it moving erratically. It swooped hard to the left - headed toward the far end of the canyon, but not in any sort of controlled way.

It leveled out somewhat, and that was when Haimehen could see it - the lightning-imbued missile attack rocketing toward the Nevermore, courtesy of Lyra and Azir. Hurricane struck true, lancing into the Nevermore’s belly like an enormous, twisting thorn. Its constant spin tore through the creature, ripping out chunks of feather, and flesh, dropping them into the canyon as it embedded itself. The lightning fried the creature’s meat, and tore through its insides, cooking it. Azir’s weapon buried itself almost hilt deep into the Nevermore. Lightning seared itself feathers, and jolted out the tips of the spurs covering its body - more than one coil of electricity licked Haim’s Soul, causing it to flicker.

By the time the attack hit, the Nevermore was closer to the far side of the chasm than it was not. The wound was terrible, but not so terrible as to bring it down - not because it had been ineffectual, no, rather because this was a Hollow of tremendous power. The type of Hollow that felled Champions and made living in Toil so dangerous. The only thing worse than the pain the Nevermore must have been feeling, and the damage the combo attack had done, was the alpha creature's tremendous rage. Angling downward, toward the helpless vanguard, already inundated with enemies, the Nevermore dived and loosed a powerful, lasting oppressive screech. So powerful, so loud, that everyone in the valley, from the vanguard, all the way back to back of the convoy, where Irona was still standing - even the Hollow - felt crushed by its shriek. It rattled bones and made senses blur. It was so strong that it made Soul’s flicker. And those who lacked Souls, inside the convoy, began to bleed from noses, eyes, and ears.

Suppressed as they were, the Nevermore would have had free reign to crush Chee, Lolo, Farrah, and Velvet - there was no avoiding it, rendered helpless by its cry. But then there was Haimehen. Already on its back, already armed with a crystal of yellow Arcanite. Already in the process of pulling sound to attack the Nevermore, Haim fed the last of his Soul into his Arcanite. It flickered orange, and rapidly went red. The red bled down to a pink and flickered until it was gone and there was nothing left. The Arcanite rumbled with the Nevermore’s own hypersonic screech, acting like a sonic-lightning rod, playing it back on echoing repeat through the creature’s own body.

The sound stopped, and the Nevermore did too. Instead of diving, it just plummeted. It crashed into the ground, smashing many of the pillars into rumble. An uncoordinated flailing of wings and kicked feet sent Lolo flying toward the edge of the chasm. It knocked Farrah away from the crinos. It rolled over Velvet, crushing her - and Haimehen - beneath it as it flipped. And a mighty beak hit Chee like a giant-sized back hand.

There were moments of stillness that followed, as the suppressive power of the Nevermore’s screech faded and senses returned. The same attack disoriented it, but in an angry fit it tried to get to its feet again while still shaking. Its wings beat hard, but instead of flying it sort of lunged forward and face planted. The Nevermore cried in distress - frustration perhaps - and stood back up. Its whole form wobbled, discombobulated, and it set its red eyes on Haimehen’s downed form. The enormous avian stomped toward him and wrapped him in its claw, smashing him beneath its weight. Again, and again, as it wobbled and tried to focus on the recovering vanguard. Each of its steps, the bird rolled Haimehen’s limp body, and smashed it against the earth, while its claws shifted around and tore at him.

Likewise, the Hollow who had been disoriented began to regain themselves - but they were ever more sluggish than the squires.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, as everyone there began to regain composure, the wind from the chasm did the most unusual thing. Of course no one was steady enough to see the why or how it happened, but suddenly a gathering of wind ripped over the top of Needlepass like a giant wall of air - an aerotsunami of some sort. The heavy wind blasted the convoy, squires, and bridge all at the same time.

Where Meena was, the cracks caused by the Nevermore began to splinter under the weight, shifted by the wind. The entire Needlepass threatened to give way.

At the rear of the convoy, the wagon Lyra had moved to, and three or four in the same area, got nudged hard enough - were light enough - that they shifted to the edge and began to tilt over and fall. And they weren’t alone - nearly a dozen, across the whole length of the convoy did the same.

And Cub? Well, the wind blew him up and over the Needlepass like a swing being thrown over the topbar, child in hand.

R E C A PAll of the Hispo have been defeated!

2 Crinos remain - both of which are engaged with Farrah. They are vulnerable and can both be taken out with a single post, or as a "half" action from two people.

Farrah suffers moderate damage, and her Soul breaks.
Velvet suffers heavy damage, and her Soul is red.
Lolo suffers moderate damage, and her Soul breaks.
Chee suffers low damage, and his Soul is red.

[Aethyrium]

Character Name: Marlowe “Lolo” Ashe
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: White button down, Plaid slacks, Suspenders, w/ glossy purple bowtie, Simple black beret
Tagging | Mentioning: | Shir
That sound.

Marlowe had the unfortunate pleasure of suffering Shir’s sonic attack during their little trial with him, and that had been an unpleasant experience. She could remember the way it vibrated through her and made her feel like she was coming apart at the seams. It was agonizing, but it had been physical pain. This sound, whatever it was? It was miserable. And so much worse. It didn’t make her feel like she was going to crumble into a pile, but it did lock her up. The world plunged into a sea, and she couldn’t figure out how to lift her arms to try and swim. She wobbled, cringed, and tensed. All of her muscles locked. She grit her teeth so hard that it felt like her teeth might shatter.

If someone had told Marlowe that getting plowed over by a giant bird was on her life’s bingo card, she would have told them that they were nuts. But there it was. She didn’t even recognize the falling form before it smashed into the ground and rolled her over. She felt the crushing weight of smoosh her against the ground, and those boney spurs tore at her as it rolled. They shredded what was left of her Soul - she could feel that, despite the lingering disorientation. It was a familiar, and unfortunate, feeling. Soulbroken, Marlowe yelped as the boney bits tore at her - one of them even managed to jab into her side and tore open a nice sized wound.

Groaning, smooshed into the dirt, covered in rubble from the pillar that she’d been at, Marlowe stared up into the night sky. There were twice as many lights for a moment. She felt sluggish, and sore. A few blinks and the sky came back together. Rolling onto her stomach, Lolo slowly pushed herself to her feet, staggering and shaking off the last remnants of the screech. Her eyes shifted to the Nevermore as it claimed Haimehen in its grasp. “Haim…” she murmured, watching the first slam of the bird’s movement not make his Soul spark - he was broken too. Marlowe looked inside and felt the built up storm of power inside - filled to the brim because of the Nevermore’s heavy impact. “Stupid. Bird…” She took a step forward, and smashed the bottle within, letting all of that energy out. It was electric and, momentarily, revitalized her. The tell tale blast of wind when she was at high energy ripped away from her, blowing dust across the field. Her hair went straight up into the air and lost form, becoming smoke.

With enough speed she was confident that she could get Haimehen from the clutches of the bird. But… She didn’t. She divided the energy, a little burst of speed, but mostly, she let the power infuse her muscles. Lolo burst forward, ignoring Haimehen’s plight, and charged at the Nevermore. She shoved off the ground and lept at it, pulling back her hand and then threw all of her strength into a blow at the butt of Hurricane - it was the nail, she was the hammer, and she was going to finish the job it had started and send it tearing through the rest of the birds body.

[shengami]

Character Name: Chee Tortious
Date | Time: 11.06 | ~21:15
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Wearing: Camo, crop top tee, Black cargo pants and Combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning: |
Note: Use Squeakers targeting Nevermore's mouth, Dart at Crinos, Triage Velvet.
Chee felt it before he heard it. A chill creeping up his back. A premonition of disaster creeping over his soul. He shuddered heavily and his eyes moved from the warrior woman to the great black shape in the sky. Remnants of electricity danced around it still. Horror swam up in him like heartburn. He twitched, ready to run, but then the sound hit.

His eyes flared and his form vibrated as fear overwhelmed him. His muscles were tense, taught, but unresponsive as he stood there frozen. He tracked it as it moved overhead. The knowledge that he was at its mercy, that there was nothing he could do to stop it, clutched him. It unmanned him. The feeling of utter hopelessness invaded him. There was utterly nothing he could do to stop what was going to happen.

He couldn't even squeeze his eyes shut to deny the end.

And then the world erupted. An echoing boom thrummed through him as the great dark form impacted the earth. Chee felt himself thrown, felt something solid ram stomach through his spine, and his body flopped to he ground. His eyes were open, they watched, as the great beast flopped and rolled. His heart shrank as he saw Velvet go under along with some other champion. His form thrummed with the need to act, to lash out. A fire ignited inside him. He'd just gotten his sister back, and now she would be snatched from him again. His teeth ground, his fist clenched, and his body tensed. His feet kicked at the ground.

I can move!

The realization washed over him and, in that instant, he twisted. The ground came under his hands and he pushed up. His hands failed. His mouth was invaded by dirt and dust. He spat it out. He struggled up and then got his feet under him. His body ached, it burned. But he felt his soul in place. No hollow broken feeling. There was something left in the tank. His hands danced over his weapons: launcher, pistol, darts... He hands went frantic and he twisted to look for Darklash. He clicked his tongue.

There's more pressing shit to do!

He looked back to where the great bird had fallen and he saw her form. Some poor unfortunate soulless bastard had its attention, but that was not his problem. That scream coming again and Velvet were his concerns. A deep breath slowly drew into his chest and he felt energy flow out again. He swayed.

The jacket shrugged off his shoulders and fell in tatters as he flexed his arms. He set off, striding, parallel to it as it toyed the champion like a cat did a mouse. He flicked his arm and a substance slid into the palm of his hand. Pearlescent, it coalesced into a sphere. He juggled it across his palm even as his other hand created a similar orb. The bird opened its mouth to make frustrated noises and he threw the first one. It sailed towards its mouth. The second followed. Then a third and fourth. "Choke on dat, ya damned ugly sunuvabitch." He spat bile and blood into the dirt and then bolted to where Velvet was.

As he went, he saw the chain-wielding elf near two Crinos and quick drew a dart to send it sailing into an eye. He then slid in next to the crumpled form of his sister. His instinct was to carry her away; his training knew better. Doc had drummed it into him: triage and field medicine. Supplies were not abundant, but he could do a little. His eyes moved over her, observing, and his finger danced gingerly along her form to find hurts.

[Aethyrium]

Velvet Smoke

Wearing
This

Artanis Mellow

Wearing
This

11.06, ~9:15pm | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Cub, Meena

The sound forced Velvet to drop Lung’bo. As she froze on the top of the pillar, the rifle-form weapon smacked her feet and then teetered off to the ground. Velvet clutched and swore that her heart stopped working. This was terrible. So much worse than the effects of the Nevermore had been described in class. No wonder this creature was so feared. Her body strained, and Velvet wondered if this was where it was going to end. Would she die here in this valley where so many others died? Would this be all that she accomplished, a failed mission to protect some wagons? There was entirely too much that she hadn’t done yet. She didn’t want this to be the end. She should have asked Meena out sooner. She should have written more letters home.

As the ground crumbled away under her feet, she toppled, unable to react. The stiffness was fading, but it gripped her so fiercely that she couldn’t even blink out of the way - not that she knew where she’d even blink to. She got rolled over, ground into the falling rocks and crushed by the whole thing. Her Soul angrily drained away in an attempt to keep her whole. But she felt it, despite its effort. There was a soreness that seeped into her every muscle and she struggled to come back too.

It ws Chee’s arrival and tending to her that finally had her blink and look around. “Oh good…” She whispered, “You made it.” Velvet slowly sat up with his help and looked around at the battlefield. Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull when she recognized that Haimehen was in the bird's grasp - and Lolo wasn’t going after him. “I’ve got to help him.” She pressed a hand on Chee’s shoulder and forced herself to her feet. “Help Farrah and Doya.” She clapped his shoulder a couple times and then winked out of existence. She popped up under the bird, in a slide, narrowly avoiding its claw. Reaching out, she hooked her hand onto one of the massive talons and used it to swing herself up so she was ‘standing’ sideways on the Nevermore’s leg. Heaving as hard as she could, she attempted to peel open the claw to free Haimehen so that she could drag him away.

Artanis spiraled as he fell, whirling over himself haphazardly after hitting the wall. He twisted and shifted in a desperate attempt to correct himself, but it was no use. The fall wasn’t doing anything for the pain of his ruined arm. How long had he been falling now? He’d lost count. The ground could sneak up on him at any moment. So with his one viable hand, Artanis grabbed more Arcanite from his reserve, a green crystal this time. Taking a breath, Artanis braced himself and reached for the chasm wall. Immediately his Soul lit up as the dragging against it scraped away and flayed the skin from his palm. Gritting his teeth, he reached into the crystal and opened its energy.

He sent a wave of the elemental magic straight down, turning the solid wall into mud in line. Mud that his hand plunged into, turning his arm into an anchor of sorts. His whole body yanked, and he felt the terrible strain in his shoulder as he began to slow, the joint supporting his entire dragging weight. Slowly the mud crease he had created got harder, the further he went the less effect the magic had. Until, suddenly, he jerked because his hand in the wall hit the solid pinch point. His shoulder ripped from its socket, and the last bit of his soul faded away. Leaving Artanis stopped, dangling from the chasm wall by his dislocated wrist, who knew how deep into the earth. More than one chunk of rock had slashed at his front, and he could feel the burn of cuts running up his chest. He felt the slow collection of blood seeping from him.

But at least he had stopped falling. Trembling, Artanis thumped his head against the wall and began to cry as the pain of it all sat in. He felt like his arm would rip off before he’d be able to dislodge himself. And if he did that, then what?

[Crash]

Character Name: Meena Tor
Date | Time: 11.06.1322 | 11:45am
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Anachem Outskirts | Grassland/Woodland - Water Resonance
Wearing: Green camo cargo pants, black long-sleeved synthetic weave zip-up over a black crop top and puffy black vest with snap on fur trimmed hood and hidden pockets, and Black combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Vesper | Haim
Meena stood resolutely against the oncoming Nevermore. She would defend the convoy until her dying breath, even if that breath came sooner than she would have liked. The monstrous alpha hollow turned towards the convey once more. The pain in Meena's shoulder still burned. Every movement on her arms scraped the blades of Artanis's gloves along the underside of her shoulder blades. Still, the flicker of her remaining soul was already dulling the pain and kitting and re-knitting damaged tendon. Pain Meena could deal with, ignore. As long as her legs could stand and her arms could swing Heart of the Mountain, she would fight to protect the innocent no matter the odds.

As the creature closed, she saw the form clinging to its back. Haim. Shit. A million plans flicked in her mind. None of them were good as the creature closed, and she pulled Heart of the Mountain up in guard, but the monstrosity never reached her.  The Hollow shrieked and spiraled upwards. Had Haim not been clinging to its back, she might have tried to bind the enormous bird with arcanite. However, before she could change tactics, a spear of lightning and metal slammed into it, forcing it past the convoy and crashing into the vanguard.

"Look out!" Meena cried, but there was no hope of being heard as the Hollow crashed into the teams a half-mile away. Meena began to move, even as the creature fell from the sky, but as she reached the edge of the tall truck, she heard a loud crack and felt the vehicle drop a few inches, throwing her balance off and making her slide to a stop at the very edge of her leap to the next truck. Her eyes grew wide as another crack resounded in the night, and she rushed to the side of the truck to peer over.

It was hard to see from her vantage point, the large truck taking up most of the width of the pass, but what she could see widened her eyes. An icy spike of fear tore through her stomach as she saw chunks of the pass break off and fall into the inky blackness.

The pass was breaking apart!

Meena shouldered Heart of the Mountain and reached behind her back to rip Artanis's gloves from her body, slipping them into her hands, she could feel the slickness of blood covering them. She swung her legs over the edge of the truck, lowering herself down the side, hanging precariously over the canyon's edge. Meena was not afraid of heights. Her people had been climbing the mesas of the Tors for centuries, but the sensation of her freefall was fresh in her mind, and she swallowed the sudden panic in her heart. With incredible force, Meena punched the climbing blade into the side of the truck and began to climb down. She was halfway to the truck's underside when the concussive wave burst from deep within the canyon and slammed into the convoy. Meena's feet were lifted off of the truck as it rocked on its suspension and slammed hard into the side, one blade pulling free from the truck and leaving her dangling by one blade against the otherwise sheer side. The truck groaned as it rocked, and with a crack, the pass crumbled faster.

A wide-eyed driver looked out the side of the truck, his face a mask of near panic. Meena dangled precariously above the precipice, her arm twisted painfully as she swung back around to lodge the second blade back into the truck. Their eyes met.

"Keep going! Pass the word! Don't stop! Keep going," Meena screamed. The woman ducked back into the cab, and Meena felt the truck lurch forward, almost dislodging her again. That was when she saw the other lighter wagons begin to fall. "Nonononononono," Meena whispered in horror as she heard the people inside them start to scream.

Meena didn't know if Vesper was still on one of the trucks or had been thrown off, but she yelled as loudly as possible. "Save who you can, but keep the convoy moving!"

Meena moved faster, punch and lower, punch and lower, on repeat until she could maneuver Heart of the Mountain off her back, throwing it under the truck and onto the pass, then following it with a roll. The truck was high enough that she would not get crushed as it slowly rolled forward.

Under the truck, the extent of the crumbling Needlepass revealed itself. The edges were ragged with large chunks where the Hollow struck, already falling away. Deep fissures ran in all directions, and as the rumbling wheels of the truck rolled overhead, a piece of the pass fell away directly in front of Meena's face. There was no time. Meena fumbled with her vest and pulled a vial of what looked like powdered clay mixed with vine clippings. It was crude and unrefined. It was little more than an idea she had, makeshift at best because she hadn't had time to explore the theory further, but she had little other choice than to test it now.

Meena tried to block out the screams and cries she could hear, the angry squawks of the Hollow in the far distance, the pain in her body. She only concentrated on the vial of arcanite. Her soul flickered; there was still enough for her to activate it. Meena opened the vial, feeling her connection with the volatile source, and unleashed it. Earth and vine began to expand, filling gaps and wrapping the crumbling pass in ropey, fibrous tendrils. Meena's shimmer flared, a deep emerald aura surrounding her and the expanding vines as Meena tried desperately to keep the arcanite under control.

[Envious]

Character Name: Farrah Tinkerspan
Date | Time: 11.06 | 9:15
Location: Campfire | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: as pictured
Tagging | Mentioning:
Note: Killed 1 crinos, attempting to keep the Nevermore grounded for others to attack
Her heavy boot down caused a swirl of dust to puff up as she trudged towards her fallen weapon. She wanted to stop and take a breather, but there was so much screaming. The pain and panicked cries from the people she was charged to protect pushed her despite the protests of her body. That moment when her soul had snapped had frightened her - it was happening far too often recently - and she had screamed against the pressure on her body, but she was alive.

She groaned as she bent down slowly, feeling out just how sore certain spots were, and picked the scimitar up. She raised both arms up in the air and then wiggled her body. It wasn’t pleasant, but everything seemed to be in working order. She looked around. First behind to see Doya and then sweeping her eyes across the field to see if everyone else was alright. They weren’t, but they’d probably survive.

One of the Crinos she had been engaged with didn’t seem likely to get back up - probably because of the knife in the eye, and the other one was still shaking off the effects of the Nevermore. She pushed herself into a run. It was slow at first, but she picked up speed as she got closer to finally leap up in the air. The beast started to lift its head to track her, but Farrah was already rearing back to pierce the creature in the ear. Mila’s scimitar sunk into the Hollow who whipped its head in a death cry, flinging Farrah closer to the Nevermore’s stomping feet. Hitting the ground without her Soul to protect her hurt.

She yoinked her blade to her hand as the creature disintegrated and rolled over to face the bird and see Haimehen. That black eye was about to be the least of his worries.

But if that’s how Haim looked, what of the Champions who were on the bridge?

A blast of power from Lolo had her turn her head. She turned to see what she was staring at and figured the brawler was going to use Azir’s weapon to advance her attack. Smart cookie!

For a moment, Farrah considered not charging in. No soul was a dangerous thing. She wasn’t going to let this be her first and last mission! But even as she thought it, she was already running forward. Her confidence knew no limits. It was just a bird.

Her chain whip struck out, wrapping around the neck of the bird and Farrah pulled, both with her muscle and her shimmer to keep the Nevermore grounded to assist Lolo’s attack and whoever else wanted a turn poking the feathered beast.

"Attack, Velvet!" Farrah cried out to urge her companion on. Saving Haim meant killing the bird and Farrah believed unquestioningly they could do it!

Eventually!

[FyreFoxx]

Character Name: Lyreilynn "Lyra" Xyrven Myalis
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: Black long-sleeved top and matching skirt, with white overshirt with blue trim, black sash, flat ankle boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Any | Azir, Doya, Marlowe, Farrah, Velvet, Chee, Vesper, Meena, Artanis, Cub, Haimehen, Kiba

Lyra’s lips curved up into a small smile as the lightning crackled above her head, amplified by the vials of soft arcanite she had thrown into the air. Lightning wasn’t her best element, but it was one of her better ones. Azir had heard her plea and, without questioning her motives, did as she asked. She knew it was a lot to ask of him, to throw away Hurricane like that without any guarantee it could be retrieved, but in the heat of the moment, what was one lost weapon compared to an entire caravan of people? If it was unable to be recovered, Lyra silently vowed to make it up to him, somehow.
 
When the Nevermore let out that shriek of pain, her eyes refocused on their giant foe, a brief thought of why that might have happened filtering through her mind, before her attention was honed in on making sure her strike was as true as Azir’s aim. There was a look of satisfaction on her face as she watched that lance become an electrified missile, impaling the large bird nearly perfectly. Her plan had worked! It had worked! Everything was going according to— Lyra’s premature silent celebrations were cut short as in the midst of it all, those powder blue eyes caught sight of something, or rather someone, clinging to the Hollow’s back, the slight flicker of soul barely visible to her keen eyes.
 
Blood drained from her face as she realized, far too late, that one of their teammates had decided to jump onto its back. When they had managed that and the how it had been accomplished escaped her for the moment, for neither of those thoughts were as important as the who. Not even the why. But who? Widened eyes were filled with fear as Lyra quickly scanned over those nearest to her, taking count of who remained. She knew from their prior arrangements that Doya, Marlowe, Farrah, and Velvet, along with a newcomer called Chee, were in the vanguard on the other side of the pass, safely across the chasm.
 
She spied Vesper nearby with Meena in tow now and Azir wasn’t too far from her position on top of the wagon. Irona, too, was just a few more paces ahead. Artanis was missing still and she hadn’t seen him for some time now. As was Cub and Haimehen. Three possible candidates, two from one team, and one from hers, and none of them were outcomes she wanted to entertain. What if she had just signed their death warrant with that attack?! What if the lightning had hurt them? Or if Hurricane had made contact with them? What if Nevermore crashed, or fell into the chasm, or threw off their rider due to the pain caused by her and Azir? What if… what if her plan killed a teammate?!
 
The little elf was clearly panicking, even as the giant bird was hurtling towards the other side, towards the vanguard’s location. Well, at least there was a chance of their survival if it hit the ground, rather than plummet into the endless darkness below. But it was the screech that sent her sprawling to her knees, collapsing as the soundwave hit her even from that distance. Lyra let out a scream as hands flew up to cover her sensitive ears. This one was in no way, shape, or form comparable to the shriek it let out when it first appeared. This one held all of its rage, anger, pain, fury. Every ounce of its hatred was put into that sound that crippled her and the others.
 
Her entire body was shaking in the aftermath of the sonic attack, her legs bent and stretched to either side of her body. Her hands were shaking as she slowly lowered them from her head. Her vision was swimming, white spots in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t tell up from down. Petrified of moving, it felt like the earth was moving beneath her, despite remaining still. Only, it took another tremble of the earth for her to realize that the earth was moving beneath her – more accurately, the wagon she was seated upon – as the pass below started to crumble away.
 
“No, no, no no no!”
 
She didn’t wait for her vision to clear or for the world to stop spinning. She didn’t wait until she had a grasp on the situation and could calmly react. She didn’t have the time. They didn’t have the time. She felt the wagon shifting further towards the edge, tilting as the ground below was giving way.
 
As soon as she slid from off the top of the wagon to solid ground, Lyra realized it was no longer just rock beneath her hands and feet, landing in a crouch as fingers touched fibrous vines. Meena.
 
Then, an idea struck. A brilliant idea. Or so she hoped. Without assistance, the pass was going to break apart before even half of the convoy made it across to safety, if any at all. Meena had a good idea and she could absolutely capitalize on it.
 
As she took her bottom lip between her teeth, she bit down, hard, the pain lancing through her enough to pull her foggy mind back to where she needed it to be. She tasted copper, but it was of such little consequence that she didn’t even bother to wipe the crimson liquid that coated her lips. With her right hand flat against the ground, fingers entwining with the vines the leader of Gravity was attempting to create and manipulate, Lyra focused her thoughts on drawing the correct Negalu with her left, where the golden bangle of blue and white crystals hung loosely around her wrist.
 
Plants needed water to grow, right?
 
Lyra summoned forth as much water as she could effectively handle, drenching her skirt as she continued to kneel on the ground. She dug the fingers of her right hand further into the ground, soaked through with water. It wasn’t easy, trying to control her magic and her shimmer at once, but she’d been doing it like this for so long, it was almost like breathing to her. Just needed to focus a little more. Another bite, another spike of pain, and the last of the disorienting effects were dashed aside.
 
As the water began to pool around her and spread out towards the sides of the pass, before it could even attempt to trickle over the edges, she called it back, using the hand sinking into the earth as her anchor point. Tendrils of water coiled around the vines within reach and as she slowly shifted her focus more on manipulating her Shimmer than using her Soul to create the water, she sent it along the pass as quickly as she could manage.
 
It found the cracks that Meena missed, finding new pathways to reach her desperate attempts at mending the bridge. It found the bits and pieces of plant life she had created, wrapping them in a watery embrace to give their moisture over, hoping to strengthen them by encouraging more growth. Earth wasn’t her specialty, but water certainly was.
 
But she had one more plan. One more thing she could try. Was it even possible?
 
Over the past two weeks, Lyra had done a lot of thinking. A lot of practicing. And a lot of reflection. Doya had taught her she didn’t need a blade to be worth something; her skills were just as mighty as any weapon. Marlowe had given her confidence in her ability to control unstable Arcanite. And Kiba had shown her a new way to reach out with her Soul. And her own practice over the years had lent a hand in learning to balance her use of Soul and Shimmer at once.
 
But this… This was foolhardy. Not like she hadn’t been there before.
 
Lyra flattened her left hand against the ground and curled her fingers around the vines beneath her palm. She reached out with her Soul, trying to find the source of Meena’s activation, seeking to feel that sensation of growth and expansion. She sought to lock onto it, grab it and hold on tightly, and then when she got a good grip, attempted to flood it with her own Soul. Earth definitely wasn’t her specialty, but it was Meena’s – the one who was clinging to the barest thread of her own remaining Soul to create a means to save everyone. The least Lyra could do was see if she could lend her some support and help keep it under control, if this would even work at all. In theory, it might be possible, adding a second source of Soul to aid in activating and controlling Arcanite, but in reality? It had never been attempted before, or at least there were no recorded attempts. It could do nothing at all, or it could do exactly what she hoped, giving Meena the means and the reins. At the very least, if this failed, she hoped strengthening the plants with water would be enough.
 
It had to be enough.
 

[Aethyrium]

Nevermore

S T O R Y T E L L E R
November 6th, (~9:15pm) | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Next Post: 5.4.24 | Farrah, Marlowe, Lyreilynn, Haimehen, Meena, Vesper, Chee, Irona, Velvet, Doya, Azir, Artanis, CubThe relatively thin stretch of stone that made the Needlepass had been stable for crossing for ages. A combination of material strength and a natural arch support made it an impressive example of natural architecture capable of supporting great loads - such as the double convoy set to cross it now. Unfortunately, like any such bridge, it had a natural weak point, right about where the Nevermore had smashed into it. Now, a combination of that attack, the extreme weight sitting on top of its least supported section, and the powerful aerotsunami causing it to shift at the split was working against it. And the combination of situations unfolding created the perfect storm of chaos. As wagons toppled over the edge, and the bridge threatened to give out, the convoy’s organization completely fell apart. Somewhere just past Meena, one truck that she insisted keep going, crashed into the back of one stopped in front of it, causing the two of them to shift slightly to the side. People were in a panic. Some decided to abandon the vehicles altogether, trying to climb, crawl, and otherwise flee - in both directions - off of Needlepass. Others realized the futility of that. There was no making it to either end, for anyone on the bridge, and so they stayed. Some braked, others tried to keep going. It quickly began to devolve.

Already deeply strained, Meena’s Soul protested about being shifted gears. The thin veil that protected her broke apart at her command and slithered through her, flowing into the Arcanite and linking her to it. There she felt the crystalized elemental energy held within. In a way, activating Arcanite was a lot like lighting a fire. Soul was struck to spark it, until eventually it ignited and roared to life. The elemental energy was like a flame, uncontrolled, and desperate to exist. Soul then acted like a source of fuel, and a guide, directing it and controlling it, in an attempt to make it obey desire. But like fire, it had a way of jumping, it was a living thing, with a chaotic, fickle will. But fortunately, in this instance, Meena’s assertiveness was greater than the Arcanite’s rebellious nature. The magic suffused the earth and shifted it around, trying to seal up the cracks and make it whole faster than it continued to come undone. Vine growth spread, tangling around the immediate area, creating a bind that tried to tie it back together.

And to an extent, it seemed to be working. Unfortunately, the speed of deterioration was greater than her efforts alone could fix - and ultimately, too big for the efforts of soft Arcanite.

Azir and Irona, in an attempt to get out of the back, had already moved past Vesper, scrambled to the top of the wagons and begun chasing after Lyra and Meena - well, more accurately, the Nevermore. So when the blast of wind came that destabilized the wagons, and the rearmost two began to fall, they were already well clear of them. The wind pulse nearly sent Vesper careening off the side, but by jabbing an arrow into the ground and clutching the shaft, he managed to hold on. The shifting it had caused him gave him just enough forewarning to foresee what was coming as the two wagons shifted and began to slid. Quickly thinking, Vesper ripped the arrow from the ground and knocked it. He leaned out over the chasm as far as he could without falling, tilting to the side and leveling his bow near horizontally to take aim just past the sliding edges of the wagons. The bowstring slipped from between his fingers, his arrow loosed. It whistled silently past the first wagon, before right between the two of them the negalu he had inscribed on it activated. The shaft of the arrow detonated from within, as Vesper conjured his own boomburst of air. It erupted, sounding its own miniature sonic boom. The ripple of air tore forward and smashed into the two wagons - it dissipated quickly enough, impacting nothing else, but those two wagons? The rear one, where the wind hit it on the front, got pushed hard to the right. The whole wagon spun around, until it sank down, its axles cracking under its weight as its front and rear wheels now hung off either side - the wagon, now laying across the width of the pass. While the wagon in front of it did the same thing, only pushed from the back, it faced the opposite direction. They were ruined, but both safe from falling.

Provided that the whole Needlepass didn’t crumble beneath them.

Lyra’s aquatic summonings stretched out with the power of her shimmer. Thin tendrils of water coiled around the vines that Meena had empowered with growth. Normally, such an offering likely wouldn’t have worked - the water, after all, was not magic. But in conjunction with Meena’s Shimmer? Something miraculous happened. Encouraged to grow, they drank up the water and rapidly turned it to an increased spread. The binding became tighter, and smaller vines wiggled into holes in the earth to try and get internal anchoring. For a single second, it seemed like things might be already. But then a fresh crack shot through the earth and another hunk of the pass crumbled into the abyss. Lyra’s reaching out for the Arcanite might have worked - she felt the flickering of connection, but just as she did, it winked out. Meena’s soft arcanite bag was simply the wrong tool for this job, and by the time she tried to empower it with her soul, well, there was simply no Arcanite left. They had gotten everything out of it that they were going to.

Falling from the sky overhead, Azir landed with a heavy thud on the ground beside Lyra. Irona jumped over them both, hitting the next wagon and continuing her sprint. “It’s got to hold.” Azir said to Lyra, dropping to his knees. He pulled out a hunk of a green crystal with a very pointy end and with all his force swung it down, jamming it into the Needlepass. His Soul flickered as he pushed energy into the crystal, draining it until it hummed a light yellow around him. The elemental magic gripped the area, shifting earth around to rebind it and make it solid once more. And that seemed to be going right for a moment, until the Arcanite crystal split beneath Azir’s hand. The crystal crumbled and dissipated, as they do, but the energy didn’t stop. Chaotic, it pulse and twisted the earth around, accelerating the unstable crumbling. It bulged and fought against the vines, crushing and splitting them in some places, threatening to undo all of the progress that had already been made.

“Stay here!” Cub all but screamed at the child - no one had ever trusted Cub to babysit, and for good reason - before leaving her ontop of the truck they had landed on it. If she was too dumb, well, that was her fault. He bounded back toward the center, where Meena was. He jumped, passing Irona as she kept running. The glance back at her caught that she only had one of her swords, but there was no time to question it. It also cost him stability, as he tripped over the back of his next jump and landed on the wagon behind it, crashing into his gut. He groaned, rolled off to the side, caught himself on the side of Needlepass, and scurried along it, until he popped up beside the Silenus. “You know what Azir said to me?” Cub asked, scrambling up to the top beside Meena as he pulled a thick canister that had been laying horizontally attached to his belt. He slapped it down and twisted the two ends, which retracted the casing and revealed a large block of clear, bubbly gel that sort of squished against the ground, “This much zapfoam would never come in handy! Ha!” He scoffed, pulling out and pinching some black arcanite powder over the stuff. There were a few discharges of electrical energy and the gel seemed to turn entirely liquid. It sloshed and followed the paths of the vines, vanishing into the crevices of the crumbling bridge and filling where water could go but plants could not. Cub focused as best he could, guiding the electrically charged substance to take the aimless form of chaotic cracking. Then, when it had reached his limits, he activated charge, causing the substance to harden up, creating a perfect seal to… Some of the cracking.

And the efforts probably would have been sufficient, had it not been for the chaotic discharge of Azir’s crystal, which was rapidly creating a new, and just as large, issue.

Irona was acrobatic enough that even jumping the gap where a wagon had fallen off was little trouble. She landed on the next with a thud, crouched, and kept going. Faster and faster, until finally she was at the front truck. She slid down the window and shouted, “Stop!” Forcing the driver to put on a break. Jayce and Alcornis were nowhere to be seen, but there was nothing she could do about that right now. She bounced off the hood of the truck, and twirled around, burying the remaining half of her blade into the ground. With a deep breath, Irona squeezed a thick rock of black Arcanite in her hand and channeled her energy into it. The elemental energy pulled through her, and she twisted it down into the blade. Like a tendril of power, she shot an invisible bolt of lighting under the ground, surging beneath the entire convoy, past where Meena, Lyra, Cub, and Azir were working on the problem, past Vesper at the back of the convoy, all the way back to her other blade that she had embedded into the ground. There she coiled the lightning around that blade. It sparked and flashed, jumping off the blade in little shocks that cooked the air. Linked like this, Irona formed a magnetic field that pulled all of the stone on the bridge toward this lightning core she had formed.

Pouring a slow and steady stream of Soul into the crystal to keep it going, Irona’s soul buzzed green and just… Kept buzzing from the drain. This was not something she could sustain forever.

Where the others were gathered, they could see the stones crackle with energy and then defy gravity by trying to reach for another, as if suddenly bound by some invisible force. Beyond that, all of their metal everything suddenly felt heavier, and drawn toward the Needlepass. But for the moment, all efforts combined, things seemed stable.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the chasm, Velvet failed - miserably - to make any headway against the bird. It was simply too strong for her. The squeakers tossed by Chee found their mark inside the Nevermore’s mouth, and they did seem to muffle its ability to make sound - though, likely due to imprecise placement - didn’t actually entirely mute it. But certainly some relief would be better than none, if it attempted to shriek again. Even Farrah’s chain hit its mark, coiling around the Nevermore’s neck. With strength and Shimmer combined, she seemed to be able to subdue the bird somewhat, and it struggled against her for a moment before it seemed to have a different idea. Instead of fighting against it, the Nevermore closed its beak and followed the twin-pull, pointing its razor beak at her to impale her.

Doya, unaware of what was happening behind her on the bridge, took the opportunity after recovering from the Nevermore’s screech, to knock the last of the Crinos into the chasm and bolt back for the battlefield. And she seemed to arrive just in time, as she saw the beak heading for Farrah. Ever focused, Doya watched for the exact moment. She’d know it by feeling. When it came, Doya twisted and hurled Peridwyn through the air like a frisbee. The dislike shield whipped forward at an impressive speed, and flew right under the Nevermore’s beak in time for it to catch it. It didn’t stop the Nevermore’s attack, but it instead came down crashing onto Farrah, bodying her to the ground beneath the shield. It certainly hurt, having the shield crushed against her front and having her smashed under the full force of the Nevermore, but the shield absorbed the piercing attack, so surely it was better than ending up skewered.

While it happened in a way unimagined, Farrah’s effort to secure the opening for Lolo still ended up being just as successful. And as the brawler flew through the air and her hand collided with the back of Hurricane, the lance launched forward like its rockets had been fired again. The lance surged forward, piecing through the Nevermore and tearing apart its insides, before the tip broke through the far side of its chest cavity, followed quickly by the rest of it. The lance smashed into one of the Nevermore’s wings and ripped apart the radius, effectively destroying the wing, before it lost force and collapsed to the ground. A spewing of black insides erupted in the wake of Hurricane, dragged by its force.

The Nevermore tried to yelp in agony, but it came out a rather pitiful, strangled version of its shriek. It stomped around wildly - shaking Velvet off in the process, and doing even more damage to the unconscious Haimehen. It spread its one wing in an attempt to take off, beating it hard, but that only caused it to sort of flop widely to the side and crash. It flailed around - grounded, badly injured, and disorganized, but still not dead. Rocking to its feet, it wobbled and like a giant, angry chicken, came tearing forward for Chee, going to peck him as it had attempted to do with Farrah.

R E C A PAll of the Crinos and Hispo are defeated.

The Nevermore is in bad shape, but still kicking. It will take two posts to kill. Any players present may participate in this, and you may combo/set up and narrate your victory blow however you want (second post should be the one to get the killing blow). The Nevermore is still a threat if it is left unattended, but you may freely move toward victory with it!

The bridge is stable for the moment. There are two particular ways forward. Characters may attempt to fix the bridge further, now that some time has been bought. However, if anything else goes wrong, there are likely to be catastrophic consequences. Alternatively, they can evacuate the Needlepass (on foot, because of Irona’s position, trucks and wagons will not be able to make it past her) and then try to fix it after the fact, risking much less. However this puts Irona at much greater risk, given she has to continue channeling to maintain the stability you all earned.

[Crash]

Character Name: Meena Tor
Date | Time: 11.06.1322 | 11:45am
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Anachem Outskirts | Grassland/Woodland - Water Resonance
Wearing: Green camo cargo pants, black long-sleeved synthetic weave zip-up over a black crop top and puffy black vest with snap on fur trimmed hood and hidden pockets, and Black combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning:
The roller coaster of emotion Meena felt over those few seconds was enough to make her dizzy, or maybe that was the constant lurching and cracking of the unstable pass.  She whooped her excitement as vines and earth wrapped and bound stone together. She groaned as more fissures tore across the slender bridge only to yell, "YES!" when her vines drank in Lyra's water and bulged with new life, then groaned again as a new rupture spread across the bridge. 

She had no idea what Cub was doing when he rolled under the bridge to join her as another set of tiny feet ran screaming away from them.  Meena almost asked but shook her head as the last of her soul temporarily drained away. It would be back soon, she hoped, but she didn't have much left to give; it would be up to sheer stubbornness and stamina to get her and everyone else off this ridiculous death trap of a pass. Seriously, with all the mechanical wonders of Onyx, someone couldn't build a fricking bridge across this wider than her butt? 

Meena had no idea what Cub's weird canister of goo would do, but she was in no way going to question it either.  When he sent a current of electricity into it, and the liquid began to foam and harden, Meena gave a happy, if manic, laugh. 

"I could kiss you right now," she cackled. "Well, make sure you rub it in his face." Meena chortled. The almost offensive-sounding laugh, given their situation, was cut short with another shudder.  "Darndarndarndarn," Meena muttered and turned to Cub. "Move towards the vanguard.  Get everyone out of the wagon and move forward on foot. If the bridge holds, we can figure out what to do with the wagons later. Go!"  They had already lost too many people.  Meena didn't want to lose anyone else.  The thought mistakes she made were piling up in her mind, and the cost of life was already too much to bear, but Meena pushed it all back before it caused her to add her tears to the water, engorging her vines.  Later.  She could fall apart later. 

Meena rolled out from under the truck opposite Cub and moved away from the safety of the vanguard. Any Member of Mockery or Gravity she saw, she gave the same directive:  Move forward. Gather any stragglers. Help whoever you can. Then she moved over and around the wagons and trucks in any way that didn't impede the flow of people moving towards safety, pausing only to help those injured or infirm over obstacles. Meena wouldn't leave the pass as long as anyone else was on it. 

When she got to the wagons, crossways along the pass blocking any movement forward, Meena punched a hole in the side of the hard-shelled wagon with Artanis's climbing claw and peeled it back with her bare hands.  There was a shriek inside as the occupants thought the Nevermore was coming for them. With the hole big enough for Meena to put her horned head through, her mass of white hair had come undone a long time ago.

"I'm going to get you out of here. Give me a second," Meena peeled the hole open further.  Once she was able to wedge her body into it, she put her back to one side and braced herself against the other.  Muscles bulged and strained, but with a screech, the hardened exterior buckled under her back enough to get everyone one. 

She held out a hand to help the family out of their ruined wagon, not letting them grab anything other than their cat and sending them towards the front of the caravan.  With a swift kick, Meena blasted a hole on the other side of the wagon and began pealing away to clear a path through the wagon so no one would have to climb it. 

Meena moved further and further towards the back of the convoy, moving people and teammates towards the vanguard, hoping and trusting that her friends could take care of the Nevermore before any innocents reached them.

[Intimate Ink]

Character Name: Vesper Cabello
Date | Time: November 6th, ~11:45
Location: Johtan Wilderness Campsite - Anachem Outskirts
Wearing: As pictured
Tagging: Irona, everyone on / interacting with the bridge | Mentioning: Haim, Kato


What would Kato do?

There was that question again. It was the one that haunted Vesper repeatedly since arriving at Hammer Academy. Vesper had side-stepped his own role, after all, and what was left was acting in a way that he’d always seen as the domain of someone else, someone born to be a Champion.

Kato would be a bad-ass. Kato would save all these people.

Vesper’s mind tripped on possibilities – some quite inventive – yet he questioned them. Why was he questioning them, though?

He heard the strangled cries of the Nevermore and Irona’s own heroic strain in magnetizing the bridge. Haimehen and Irona. Like Kato they both felt on the eclipse of leaving him. One wrong push, or a weakness that her power could not control would send Irona into the depths. Haimehen? Was he even still alive? Even so, Haimehen’s own spoken words told Vesper that he’d all but resigned his position.

Were either of these people particularly close to Vesper? Not yet, certainly not like Kato, but Vesper didn’t feel like he had anyone particularly close; it made what small in-roads he had at the academy even more important. And now it looked like both, just like Kato, were going to go away at once.

Vesper didn’t want to think whether staying clear of trying to strengthen the bridge was the right answer, he didn’t want to consider if this was logic or him foolishly trying to preserve something after what felt like one wretched moment after another on this mission. Maybe, fortunately for his consciousness, he didn’t have time to consider his motivations.

Tying the rope to an arrow, Vesper fired it into secure rock. Using the magic inherent in his bow to guide it, he pushed it beyond velocity’s natural limits, wedging like he was returning the arrowhead to the earth itself.

As crowds of people attempted to pass by Irona on foot – and while perhaps other Squires even tried to secure the bridge – Vespa focused on the woman in front of him and her waning energy. His amber eyes fixed on her only long enough so that she would not startle when he moved by her.

He didn’t dare give her the option – hell, given her family maybe she’d want the glory that would come from falling here. Vesper couldn’t handle that, though. With a steep breath he began to fix the rope to her as people passed by him, their body-heat and screams of fear lashing at his ears. He ignored them, working to fix the rope so that if the bridge gave way Irona would be held by the relative safety of it and his arrow.

He wanted to tell her that she’d see the Doraghi yet, that she didn’t get to sacrifice herself today when the casualties of the day were likely already devastating. He wanted to say that, but instead he stayed silent, securing his footing, and trying to ensure that the panicked people did not knock over or otherwise interrupt the person who was putting her life on the line to get them safely across.

He tried not to imagine what every unseen crack, every squishing sound meant. He tried to not connect it to his partner who, despite any actions, judgments, or intended departures, was still his partner.

Once Irona was secure, Vesper told himself he’d work and tend to the others and the Needlepass… This wasn’t what Kato would do, but for Vesper it had to be enough. It felt like the only thing his hands and heart would currently let him do.

[Envious]

Character Name: Farrah Tinkerspan
Date | Time: 11.06 | 9:15
Location: Campfire | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: as pictured
Tagging | Mentioning: | Doya, Marlowe
Note:
Shen eeded to get up, but the Nevermore’s attack had momentarily stunned her. Chest numb, wind knocked out of her, Farrah rallied her muscles to do something - anything! - to get her out of her precarious position of being squashed between the beak and the ground. Her hands gripped the edge of Doya’s shield and attempted to push back against the beast to give her room to breathe and when she finally wheezed in a gasp of fresh air, she wasted it with needless trash talk.

”Can hardly call that an attack,” she grunted, muscles straining unsuccessfully. Her arms trembled before all weight was suddenly ripped off of her and she was forcefully yanked upwards as the Nevermore reeled back in strangled agony. Pulled to her feet, she clumsily tossed Peridwyn towards Doya with a wordless look of thanks. Doya had saved her life.

“Go ahead, Marlowe!” Farrah grunted in a poor attempt at cheering. It was hard to do when fighting with the bird. She clicked the lever on her shield and let the chain clank in, but instead of trying to reel in the Nevermore, Farrah launched herself at the neck of the bird and pulled the tension. Using her chain whip as a lasso to stand on the neck of the fowl Hollow, Farrah pulled, attempting to choke the life out of it.

”Suck on this,” she said, using the brutal move she had recently experienced from Ocean. She stomped down hard on the shoulder of the creature where the ruined wing hung limp. This paused the charge towards Chee and Farrah held on for dear life as the bird started to shake. She refused to move, pulling tighter to squeeze the life out of the creature. The thick bristles on its body started to crack where the chain was pulling, biting deeper into its flesh.

A moment later, there was a crunch. She was breaking through those feathers. The Nevermore started to thrash harder, making it difficult to hang on, but Farrah pulled with her shimmer as well as her strength to keep that bird glued beneath her. It was becoming harder. She was feeling the chain stretch beyond the capacity it was meant for. This was threatening to pull the whip out of her shield altogether.

”Dick!” she said through gritted teeth as the might of the weakened Nevermore began to overpower her. She couldn’t do this alone. ”Help me!”

[shengami]

Character Name: Chee Tortious
Date | Time: 11.06 | ~21:15
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Wearing: Camo, crop top tee, Black cargo pants and Combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning: |
Note: 
Chee's eyes went open, wide, then they narrowed as the great beast, battered and broken but not beat, came at him again. His body recalled the feeling of his belly trying to pass through his spine when it had smashed him seconds ago. His corpreality flinched. Chee took a step-hop back and reached for Darklash again.

Out of pure instinct, he looked around for the weapon. He'd had it only for a short time, but he'd already found himself relying on it more and more. He was aware of it because Pat had always taught him to rely on himself, not the tools. A warrior was not his weapons; a warrior was a person who chose to stand and fight. The greatest weapon a warrior had was his will, his mind, and his soul.

Still, a glint in the corner of his vision and he was moving.

For all his protest, he didn't have another main weapon outside his pistol. He slid along the ground and scooped up whatever it was. Something smooth and calm settled in him as he saw the dark blade of the weapon.

Then a sudden, loud cracking sound pulled his attention. The bridge was not sounding good. He'd seen the Nevermore hit it earlier. He saw a tide of people flowing over it toward the Nevermore which was dying but not dead. Those people would never survive getting hit by it. They wouldn't even survive being that close to its call. His heart clenched as he spotted a little girl running alone. He twisted to glare at the black disaster.

Was that the burly elf riding the thing? That had not gone well for the other elf, had it? She was looking at him and calling him names. The hell was that about? He grit his teeth though. Help was needed and he had help to give.

His toes dug into the ground once more, his thighs bunched, his calves screamed, his body vibrated. A grin leapt from his face to hers; a moment in which they became comrades. It felt like his blood was racing around the track of his arteries so fast it might slip gravity and burst out of him in great gushes. His skin felt tight. The back of his neck was white hot for some reason. Scrabbling in the dirt, he launched with his hands. Wind whipped past him as he lurched forward. He had seen the desperation in that face but also will, terrible towering will. He raced to match it.

The beak came for him again, the bird somewhat lucid as its life struggled mightily. Chee had to give it that. For a thing of pure destruction, it struggled to live with a potency that was awesome. He jinked and slipped the beak. He was so close that he ran a finger along that sleek black surface. It was sad that Hollow did not give trophies. He grinned into the mirror of its eye; saw the malevolent malice there. He slipped past its face so close a spike caught his face and drew a trickled of blood.

Just past the head, he ducked beneath, rolled along as it thrashed, and tossed the blade end of Darklash up. Not waiting, he let the line out to its maximum length and rolled back under. He took two big steps back and then dashed. Jump, kick off that spike, run up here, step in the ear hole. He launched above the bird's head just in time to catch blade end. He stood on its head and rode it like the most impressive wave ever. He sent a ecstatic grin along the neck to Farrah even as he manipulated Darklash's controls and the hard-light chain reeled in. It snapped tight around the bird's throat just below its head joint.

He wasn't as strong as the burly elf, not by a mile, but Chee was clever. He didn't pull up to add pressure to the strangulation. No, the bird was weakening but it was not clear how long the elf could hold on. Chee started to saw. Holding onto the hard-light chain itself, he drew it back and forth. Faster and faster, he pulled up now too. The chain wrapped around his fists so tight, blood seeped from them. Inch by inch, he reeled in more and more chain. The head bobbed and jerked, but he rode it like a wild oxamel. And he kept sawing, pulling, reeling in each inch. He ground his teeth with the effort, felt the strain in his calves and thighs, but the chain also allowed him stability as it slowly ate into the bird and spilled dark ichor. He was focused on the exertion now, on the kill. His souls parked and protested the abuse, flashing red in his eyes.

He listened as the garbled strangle sounds of the bird grew desperate, wet. He thought of it landing on Velvet, of that moment of sheer terror as he watched his sister's form eclipsed. He thought of that pour soul battered around like a cat's toy. He thought of the dozen, scores, hundreds of men and women this thing had surely destroyed. He thought of that little girl running across the crumbling bridge all alone. Where were her parents? Already plummeting to their doom? Had the Hollow created yet another orphan in this world? Had it sentenced yet another soul to his own existence? Left with, except by the grace of found family, with nothing but the cruel mocking laughter of the Dark Brother's cursed get? He hated them. His hate gave him strength. He hated them. They didn't deserve to exist. They sowed nothing but hate and terror. They reaped nothing but misery and loneliness. 

A beastial scream tore from his throat as he sawed with more vigor. Then, the chain suddenly came loose and he slipped, toppled backwards. He slid down its face to land on its beak. Scrambling, panic, he righted himself and- stopped. He looked into those glassy eyes and saw nothing. Nothing stared back. He blinked. Then he yelped as the solid form beneath him gave out and he tumbled through the ashy remains.

[FyreFoxx]

Character Name: Lyreilynn "Lyra" Xyrven Myalis
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: Black long-sleeved top and matching skirt, with white overshirt with blue trim, black sash, flat ankle boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Azir | Irona, Meena

Lyra kept mouthing words of encouragement as her Soul reached out. She felt the faintest connection of the Arcanite and, for a moment, she grinned, thinking it might just work, but as soon as she felt it, it just… vanished. “It… it is gone.” Her water did bolster the vines and that part gave her great relief, but would it be enough? Would it hold the bridge together long enough to get the convoy across safely? She wasn’t sure, so when Azir dropped down next to her, flinching at the sudden appearance of the elf, a wave of relief washed over her as he slammed an Arcanite crystal into the ground and empowered it with his own soul.
 
“Azir…” She gave the elf a weary smile, grateful for his assistance, and for a moment, she could breathe normally again. It would hold. It would be enough. It would— Lyra felt the ground beneath her hands and legs tremble. It wasn’t solidifying, it was breaking apart! The color was rapidly draining from her face at the failed attempt, her eyes wide with surprise. “No, no no no!” The chaotic nature of Arcanite was rearing its ugly head as the bridge started to shake, even worse than before. The cracks were growing larger and the vines were unable to hold it all together. In fact, many of them were being ripped apart as the earth fought against its unnatural bindings.
 
“It is not going to hold; we have to leave!” Grabbing Azir’s hand, Lyra got to her feet and tugged him along with her, scrambling to the top of the closest wagon just as she saw Irona jump overhead, her feet carrying her to the front. Lyra paused, glancing over her shoulder towards the rear of the caravan. Was Irona running from something back there? She was in so much of a hurry that it seemed possible, but there had been no shouts of danger. All she could hear now was Meena’s voice telling everyone to get off the bridge, by foot.
 
She bit her lip, twisting her head back towards the front, then looked behind them again. The wisest option was to continue moving forward with the others, but she had to know. Especially since by now, there was that spark of lightning she could see just over the edge of the furthest vehicle. Something was definitely there, but it wasn’t a Hollow.
 
Scrambling to her feet, Lyra shot Azir an apologetic look before she shifted her body and bolted towards the back of the convoy. With one poorly timed step, her feet landed on the edge of her skirts and sent her face first into the next wagon, slamming her chin down on its hard top. Teeth were sent biting into delicate flesh as she chomped down on her bottom lip. She tasted copper again, this time in abundance, spitting a mouthful of blood off to the side in a very unladylike manner. Lifting her hand to her face to wipe the blood from her chin and lips was more difficult than it should have been – something was pulling her arms downward. An invisible force was making all the metal seek the ground, including those golden bracelets encircling her wrists. Had that gentle tug been what off-set her balance and caused her to fall?
 
Lyra didn’t bother dusting herself off, back on her hands and knees as she pushed off the roof of the truck and kept going towards the back. She thought she heard someone calling her name, but after that last shriek from the Alpha Nevermore, the world around her was muffled. Her ears were still ringing. She couldn’t even hear her feet stomping over the tops of the empty vehicles beneath her. All she could hear was the thumping of her heart in her chest.
 
There was a quick look given to Meena as she passed the tall Silenus, but she ignored any orders given to her, not that she could make them out clearly anyway. Irona had done something, she was sure of it, but what she had done was still out of reach. Lyra kept replaying that thought over and over in her head. Irona was running to the front, and quickly, but why? Meena hadn’t given the order to evacuate yet, and Azir had been right next to her and she was fairly certain no such order came from him, either. So, why? The further she went, the warmer the air grew.
 
The tiny elf got her answer as she dropped down from the final wagon back onto solid ground, face to face with a sword embedded deep into the ground. Irona’s sword. By now, she had seen the slip of a woman fight enough times that she could recognize that weapon. Whatever was going on involved this sword, for there was no way Irona would have purposely abandoned one of her twin weapons unless it was absolutely necessary. Of that, she was certain.
 
One step, then two, then three, before she was stumbling towards the sword, despite the way the air felt heated around her. Despite the crackling energy of the black Arcanite that had been set into the top of the sword. Electricity licked at her skin, making her wince. Her clothing was singed, but she didn’t care. Her soul flickered every time another spark tried to reach her, but still she pushed closer. She wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but from what she could see and feel, it had something to do with the way her arms felt heavy, the metallic bracelets being drawn to the pass beneath her feet. But what was powering the crystal now? Was this Irona’s doing? But… how? How was she achieving this?!
 
Lyra shoved the thought from her mind. There was no sense of trying to figure out the how’s right now; there was just no time to do so. Saving that thought for later, there was only one thing on her mind. Whatever Irona had done required Soul, and for that, Lyra had plenty to spare. Gritting her teeth, she reached a hand out, closing her eyes as she wrapped her fingers around the crystal and began to pour her Soul into it, slow and steady, as a green flicker surrounded her body with the gentle drain it imposed. She had barely managed to help Meena, but hopefully, she could be of better assistance to Irona.

[Aethyrium]

Ocareena Min’Uet de Foarist

S T O R Y T E L L E R
November 6th, (~9:15pm) | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Next Post: - | Farrah, Marlowe, Lyreilynn, Haimehen, Meena, Vesper, Chee, Irona, Velvet, Doya, Azir, Artanis, CubIrona wasn’t startled by Vesper’s actions, but she did manage to be surprised by it. She met his gaze briefly and blinked, confused at first at what he was doing, until he started going about securing her. Family legacy or not, Irona had no desire to die here, and the anchor did bring her some comfort. But not so much that she ignored that Vesper was unsecured. She’d have smiled, if she wasn’t so busy concentrating on what she was doing. The color of her Soul started to wane, shifting toward a more yellow. “You need to go.” She whispered, “Help everyone off the bridge. If it collapses…” Well, she didn’t want to think about it. Though as she said that, her eyes widened slightly and she quickly cocked her head, looking straight down the bridge - line of sight blocked by vehicles - and stared, confused, “Someone… There’s someone at the back of the bridge. They’re channeling the Arcanite I left.” It didn’t change anything, save that this was much easier with two, and it freed some of her concentration.

The chain ripped through the Never’s neck, blades sawing through feather, cartilage, and bone, until it wetly and heavily flopped to the ground. Headless, hole torn through it, the great Hollow collapsed to the ground, finally lifeless. It’s crushing grip on the unconscious body of Haimehen, finally eased.

Catching the shield that had been tossed back at her, Doya quickly reached back and secured it on her back and sheathed Excalibur. There would be time for congratulations and more later, right now there was a more pressing issue. Though his actions were inexcusable, she didn’t believe the circumstances damned Haimehen to death. So rushing past Farrah, Velvet, and Marlowe, she hopped over the Nevermore’s form, skipping past Chee and right to the clutched talons. Shoving one out of the way, she reached in and pulled the elf’s battered body from its grip, and laid him out on the ground. Doya dropped to her knees beside him and twisted her head, putting an ear to his chest.

Velvet, also concerned, popped in not far away. She glanced at Chee and then bit her lip sadly as she looked at Haim’s unmoving form. “Is he…” Velvet’s brows knitted together, she didn’t want to finish the sentence.

Doya’s eyes closed and she listened carefully. “He’s alive.” She whispered quietly. But nothing about what she heard sounded good. Sitting up on her knees, she looked sadly at Velvet, “He needs more help than I can give him. Find Meena, quickly.” From there she looked around to see what Farrah and Marlowe were doing, before returning her attention to Haim and taking his hand. “Hold on, help is coming.”

“Chee, they may need extra hands. Come on.” She beckoned, before bolting back toward the bridge. Not hesitating, her form collapsed in on itself between steps, and she rocketed forward in little bursts of teleportation, greatly accelerating her travel to, and down the bridge. As she closed distance down its length, she ran into the people who had abandoned the vehicles and were already starting to make their way across. That slowed her down a bit, but she deftly navigated the rush of people. It was only when she finally got to Irona that she seemed to grasp what was happening here - in the dark, more than half a mile away, it had been impossible to know exactly what was going on.

“Someone is helping…” Irona breathed out, not looking up at Velvet. Her Soul gradually shifted into the brighter yellow range as it drained into the Arcanite. “It should hold. We need to get everyone off the bridge.”

“Where is Meena, there’s… We need her up front.” Velvet inquired. All she got was a nudge of Irona’s head back the way they had all come. Cub passed her shortly thereafter, little girl in arms, where, following Meena’s instructions, he was corralling people down the Needlepass. He indicated to Velvet she had gone further back to get others, and then continued ushering people forward. With people already climbing over things, and struggling to make their way forward, Velvet didn’t want to get in their way and slow it down any further. So, she jumped from the side of the bridge, catching a truck a few back and blinked to its side, latching onto its door. Again she jumped off, looked ahead, blinked to the bridge side, grabbing its ledge. She swung herself off and repeated this over and over, rapidly moving down the line until she found Meena. Popping in by her side, Velvet appeared, arms both already wrapped around Meena’s. “You need to come with me.” She tugged. Meena’s protest and resistance, about others that still needed to get by, Velvet shook her head, “Haimehen needs you. I’ll take care of this. You need to go now.” She insisted.

Once she had Meena going forward, Velvet took up the role of getting people from the back and helping them forward. When she got to the last of the vehicles, which were turned sideways, she made sure they were empty before taking notice of Lyra, and Azir, at the sword. “We need to get off the bridge, come one.” She called, beckoning them from the top of the wagon.

Azir peeked at Lyra and her concentrating on the Arcanite, watching her Soul fizzle and pop as it drained. Resolute that he would not leave her, Azir met Lyra’s eyes, shook his head and looked up at Velvet. “We’re staying. Get everyone off the bridge. Once it’s clear, we will try to fix it.”

Blinking, Velvet started, “But–”

“Go. We’ve got this.”

Unimpressed, Velvet stomped a foot, grumbled, spun and blinked away from them, catching up to the rearmost people and trying to speed up their journey with aid and encouragement.

* * * * *

Crossing the bridge in this way was much quicker. And in just a few minutes, the bridge was free of people, save for Irona, Lyra, Azir, and Vesper who chose to ignore Irona’s wishes. Having brought up the rear, Velvet assured them that they were the last as she passed the pair - and that it was Lyra and Azir on the back side. When Vesper confirmed that everyone else had made it off the bridge, Irona looked up at him, her Soul slowly bleeding into an orange color. “We need to let them know everyone is clear. If we’re going to try and repair it, doing it while we’re holding it together is our best bet. Someone has to go to the crack and try to fix it. Can you signal them?”

Meanwhile, on the far side of the convoy, Meena got the site of the decapitated Nevermore. Its form was already slowly breaking down, flaking off like ash from a log in fire. When she arrived, she found Doya, and Ocareena, sitting beside Haimehen’s broken body. Doya looked up at her and frowned. Upon examination, Meena would find that Haim was in bad shape. It was a miracle that he was alive at all. The Nevermore had done a good job of smashing him into ground-elf. Several of his bones were not just broken, but shattered. Ribs were broken, and likely punctured things inside of him. What shallow breathing he did rasped wetly. And out here in the field, there was really little Meena could do overall. Ocareena and Doya had already done what they could to take care of his large open wounds and stem the bleeding - though that could use attention. No doubt Haim was in pain, which she could help. It seemed unlikely that he would ever fully recover from this. And if he were to have any chance, he needed an actual doctor, and facilities equipped to handle this.

Ocareena had positioned herself so that Haim’s head was in her lap. “Underhill is closer than Onyx.” She said, looking up at Meena, “We can take him with us, and back to his home.” Ultimately true, and though a village would be better equipped to stabilize him that Meena was here in the wilderness, such a place lacked the sort of things that would give him the best long run chances. “He should be with his people.” Was her ultimate argument.

Elsewhere, Jayce revealed that Alcornis had gone over the edge to Chee and Cub, and was taking stock of how many had made it across Needlepass.

[Envious]

Character Name: Farrah Tinkerspan
Date | Time: 11.06 | 9:15
Location: Campfire | Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: as pictured
Tagging | Mentioning: | Doya, Marlowe
Note:
There was a gasp of relief as soon as the head dropped and Farrah let her arms fall slack as she braced herself for the fall. She landed on her feet, breathing heavy from the exertion, and gave a weak thumbs-up to Chee. ”Good job little dude,” she said and then looked down at Haim. She wasn’t a healer - there was no kindness she could perform other than ending his misery, but Meena? Her gaze lingered on Haim’s broken body as Velvet took off. He was an elf. He was a future champion. Both of those things were in such small supply. He couldn’t die.

”Is gunna be alright. Don’t you worry, Doya. That Haimehen a prideful, stubborn thing. This ain’t the end.” The grim cut of her mouth hinted that she wasn’t sure if that was true. She pressed the toe of her boot against Haim’s foot in a gesture too gentle to be considered a nudge. Her eyes lingered a moment longer on his mangled form before she looked up.

No words seemed adequate.

Hidden in the darkness there could be more Hollow waiting. Urgency filled Farrah and a need to know where everyone was. Chee and Velvet had left. Doya was with Haim. Marlowe beside her. She turned to the bridge. Vesper and Irona. And that was all she could make out that she cared about. She locked eyes momentarily with Ocareena as the elf assessed the Squires and found her way by Haim’s side.

”Message needs ta be sent. Haimehen come from where you be goin’,” she said quietly. ”Him gots family at the Cordes sur-Ciel. But his father be in Onyx.” Two days of travel. She doubted Haim would last the night. She gave an anxious tug to her braid.

”Gunna help with the people movin’ off that there bridge,” she said stoically. Standing there doing nothing was harder than fighting the Nevermore. Without the adrenaline of battle, the little cuts across her body came alive like fire. The bumps and bruises were tender. She wanted to rest, but they couldn’t afford to. Haim was bad, but what about the others in their convoy?

She saw Meena running and waved a hand to draw her attention. ”Haim beat up pretty bad. We gotta go fast iffin’ he gunna survive this,” she said. ”Gunna help ta get people ready fer movin’.” And she did without gentleness.

”Simmer down, y’all! Order! Order, I says! C’mon now, stop shovin’ ‘n run along proper like. We need speed ‘n a bit of silence ain’t gunna hurt none so we ain’t drawin’ no more undo attention!” Her rough words were firm, but her calm control was reducing the panic. ”Get accounted fer. Iffin’ you with Jayce ya move straight ahead. Iffin’ you with Alcornis, move to the right. Get along now! Go, go, go!” A woman fell to her knees and Farrah moved in quickly, helping her up.

”You is alright. C’mon now,” she said gently, giving her a nudge to keep moving. With the flashes of lightning, she could see Cub in the distance with Chee and Velvet. That magnetic pull was getting stronger. Her shield felt lighter, wanting to move towards the arcanite use. There was nothing she could do to help with her soul so thoroughly drained, so she declined to get in the way. She backtracked towards the mouth of the pass, repeating her directions like a broken record. Jayce straight ahead. Alcornis to the right. Move along and quiet down, all while scanning the crowd. And as the tail end of the convoy finally came in with Velvet, Farrah realized one was missing.

"Where Artanis at?" she asked Velvet, alarm clear in her voice.

[Aethyrium]

Character Name: Marlowe “Lolo” Ashe
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: White button down, Plaid slacks, Suspenders, w/ glossy purple bowtie, Simple black beret
Tagging | Mentioning: | Doya, Velvet, Chee
Marlowe had forgotten how painful hitting something hard with her Shimmer active could be. Immediately she felt her knuckles scream in anger at her. She was sure her fingers would wear bruises like rings for a few days. It was made even worse by the fact that she had no Soul when hammering Hurricane. Satisfied with her attack, Lolo hit the ground and bounded back several steps to get some space from the clumsy flailing of the monster. She looked for an opening, but one didn’t immediately present - its frantic wing kept her at bay. Fortunately, Farrah and Chee weren’t so deterred. Lolo swatted the wing, starting a new approach when the Nevermore’s head flopped to the ground. It left her scrambling back again to avoid getting smooshed again.

As soon as the Hollow was dealt with, her mind turned to Lyra. She glanced back at the bridge and convoy still at such a distance. That’s where she’d have gone, had it not been for Doya’s march forward reminding her that Haim was right there. Her heart tugged on her, and she followed the ladies of Mockery around the Nevermore’s corpse. She flashed Chee a grin and gave him a thumbs up. That joy drained away when she saw Haimehen spill out to the ground at Doya’s. Thankful that Velvet asked, Marlowe gazed with concern, but Doya’s answer only made things more complicated. He was still alive, which was good, but meant she still had to be mad at him. Not that she wanted him dead. Or did she? No. Probably? Marlowe stared at Haim’s battered form and said nothing. She just started to pace. Back and forth, ignoring all calls to settle her down - she went deep into her head.

If he died, she couldn’t be mad at him. She couldn’t make him know how angry she was. That irritated her greatly, because she wanted him to know. She wanted to make him aware of the trust he had broken. But he was her friend - or so she had thought - so she didn’t want him hurting. He was her teammate, and this was awful, he shouldn’t be suffering like this. The more she paced, the tighter her shoulders got. Every now and then she looked up, huffing when she didn’t see Meena. She wanted to know what was going on, damnit!

She hated this.

When Meena arrived and finally got a chance to look him over was the first time Marlowe stopped. She watched, peeking over Meena’s shoulder from a distance “Is he going to be okay?” Meena didn’t seem confident, and that helped literally nothing. But what managed to help even less was what Ocareena said. This strange elf was offering to take him away? Marlowe’s eyes widened, unsure how to feel about that. On one hand, good riddance, be gone, problem child! On the other hand, it was almost heartbreaking to think that she might not see him again. He would want to be with his people, right? But he’d want to be with them, his team, surely.

But did he deserve that?

Angrily, Marlowe threw her hands up and stormed off. She walked past the disintegrating corpse of the Nevermore and off into the dark edge of the chasm. Where was Lyra? She looked toward the bridge, and people gathered at its throat. What would she want? She just wanted to be done with this. Haimehen being gone would make sure that she didn’t. Without realizing it, Marlowe began to fidget with the bracelets that Haimehen had made for her. The recreated weapon that he’d finished just in time for this mission, and that she hadn’t made use of, because somehow it had felt wrong. They were hers, but they had his signature on them. She didn’t want him to have the satisfaction, after what he had done. Lolo thought back to The Alignment, and the kiss that could have been between her and Lyra. She had held back. He had taken it. “Why did you…” The unfinished question stoked all of the heat in her belly all over again. How could he? Marlowe felt her cheek twitch in a snarl. He deserved what he got. Farrah had said she should have held him down, and Marlowe still felt like that was true.

But he had saved them, hadn’t he? With the Nevermore. She wasn’t blind to that. But she didn’t know if it mattered. Did it make up for anything? No, she thought. And not in the least because the entire action probably would have been framed as he was doing what he could to make it up for them. She could hear his smug fucking voice suggesting that it was what he could do for them, like they needed his god damn protection. It was infuriating. Lolo ripped the bracelets off her wrists, and clutched them in one hand. She squeezed and glared at them, shaking with anger. Holding up her left hand, she looked at the bloody mess of her knuckles and flexed against the pain. It was worth suffering for it, to not give him the satisfaction. Marlowe pulled her arm back and flung her weapons out into the chasm. She turned away and returned to the group with Haim.

Her eyes found him as soon as possible and didn’t move from him as she approached. Dropping to her knees, Marlowe studied his injuries and the work that Meena had done on him. She listened to an update on his condition and the options, the pros and cons. But she didn’t care. She didn’t really hear them, she was too busy studying his busted up face. “I don’t want you at my big parties.” She whispered, jaw trembling - though in anger or sadness was anyone’s guess. “Take him…” She looked at Ocareena first, before swinging her teary gaze to Meena, “Bring him with us…” Lolo shrugged and looked down at him, “I don’t want him to die.” She gnawed her lip angrily. “But if I ever see him look at Lyra again, I’ll make him wish that bird still had him. And this team? It’s better off without him.” She curled her fingers and grinded her knuckles into the dirt, lifting herself to her feet. “I’ll throw him off the island, before I let him betray any of us again.” Tears, hot, angry, bitter tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks as she turned and stormed off to find Lyra. Because Haimehen had been her friend, and what he did? She couldn’t forgive him, she didn’t know how. And that broke her heart.

She never wanted to be called that again.

[Intimate Ink]

Character Name: Vesper Cabello
Date | Time: November 6th, ~11:45
Location: Johtan Wilderness Campsite - Anachem Outskirts
Wearing: As pictured
Tagging: Everyone on / interacting with the bridge


Draining. Everything felt draining from watching the colors of Irona’s soul flickering through a spectrum of increasingly disastrous colors, to debris that shook free from the magnetized bridge that indicated its’ potentially imminent collapse. And Haim? Vesper lacked the perception to know exactly the status of his teammate, yet he had seen enough to realize that things were likely not better there (or even far worse.)

Much like Irona had no death-wish, Vesper had none. Despite being a member of Hammer Academy, due to the circumstances of that admission, glory still felt an uneasy fit on Vesper. He had only forgone fleeing or securing the rope onto himself as priorities because at this point, he didn’t want to face the next sunrise thinking that he should have done something more; Vesper had faced enough sunrises in the wake of Kato’s disappearance doing just that.

So, realizing his position of looking like a damned fool, he found himself keeping Irona company while shielding and guiding the crowds as he could. He watched her slowly drain herself, though at least this was tempered by some source of magic below.

Once the bridge was vacated, Vesper momentarily considered fixing the bridge where he stood and forgoing signaling, but the cost of failure seemed far too high. Every cell in his body was shaking with anxiety, wanting to resolve this as quickly as possible, but he hoped that a moment’s more patience and the debatably more prudent of actions would prove to be worth it.

It was only after he fired the flare arrow, signaling that the bridge was clear that he took the time to look towards Irona again, doing his best to hide the helplessness that he felt to join in strengthening that Shimmer. ”It won’t be long now, everything will be fine.” He swallowed the bitterness of doubt in his words and kept focused ahead, keeping an arrow poised to guard against anything else that may come with the perceived intention of ruining this day.

If people neared, he’d reluctantly move forward, not wanting his own weight to add to the stress of the cracks, while prepared to join in reparation efforts as possible.

[FyreFoxx]

Character Name: Lyreilynn "Lyra" Xyrven Myalis
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: Black long-sleeved top and matching skirt, with white overshirt with blue trim, black sash, flat ankle boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Azir | Velvet, Irona, Vesper

Lyra had been at first surprised that Azir had followed her. After pulling him to his feet and attempting to escape, she had thought he would have gone towards the front with the rest of the evacuees, but instead, he stuck by her side throughout it all. A part of her was grateful for it, and another part of her wanted to tell him to just leave her behind. If anything happened to her, that was fine, but if something happened to Azir? And because of her? That wasn’t something she was prepared to deal with. She never wanted to see him injured. Still, just his presence had been calming, much like the other night after the incident involving her team and how he had offered to stay with her.
 
She didn’t want to be alone, she realized. She wanted him there. As much as she wanted him safe, she wanted him by her side, too.
 
Fingers clenched around that crystal just a little tighter, tearing her mind off anything but strengthening that flow. Her Soul continued to flicker from green and faded towards yellow, but she still did not stop. Not until she was sure people were safe. This was something she could do and she was determined to do it. Velvet’s voice nearly broke her concentration and her eyes flickered up towards the small Silenus, who was urging the two elves to leave, but all she did was shake her head. She wouldn’t leave, but Azir…
 
For a moment, there was a bit of internal panic, wondering if Azir would leave her behind and follow his teammate back to safety. There was still a part of her that wished he would, so that he would remain safe. However, when her eyes met his and she saw the resoluteness in them, she gave him a soft smile. She didn’t even need to hear his words to know their intent. He was staying. There was a shuddering sigh that let her lips, letting her eyes slip shut again as she returned her focus to channel her Soul into that Arcanite.
 
There was a flash of light against the backs of her eyelids and they snapped open, glancing towards the sky as it lit up brilliantly with the sparking of an arrow flare. Arrows. Vesper? “Azir,” she started shakily. “Can you check that out? I… I cannot leave this.” Her Soul was fizzling from a yellow to an orange. “Is everyone safe now?” The sooner people were free from the bridge, the sooner they could focus on fixing it without risking more lives. What Lyra and Irona were doing was just a temporary measure, but this needed a more permanent fix.
 
“I-I am afraid of stopping,” Lyra admitted, her attention split between maintaining her channeling and Azir. “We need to fix the bridge, but how? It is Irona on the other end, is it not? She will not be able to hold this for long without assistance.” She swallowed the lump forming in her throat, looking down at the sword and black crystal. If she let go now, she could certainly try and fix the bridge, but that would put added strain on Irona and there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t collapse in the meantime. However, if she held on, someone else could get to where they need to be and mend it. Those powder blue eyes sought out Azir’s peridot ones, a frown turning the edges of her lips down. “Azir, I—I am scared.”

[shengami]

Character Name: Chee Tortious
Date | Time: 11.06 | ~21:15
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass | Mountain & Desert - Lightning & Sonic Resonance
Wearing: Camo, crop top tee, Black cargo pants and Combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning: |
Note:
Chee existed in a sort of fog for a bit. After him bum hit the ground and he registered the Hollow had been killed, he blinked and blinked until Velvet called him. He scrambled up, reeling Darklash in, and trotted after her.

Then there was a fugue of repeating comforting words and guiding people and trying to stay out of the way as people navigated the narrow path. Occupying territory on it was just going to block traffic, so he found himself at the end repeating the directions to split into the two caravans. That way, it would be easier for each caravan master to make a head count.

The burly elf was helping too and he grinned at her a few times. Her name was Farrah, he thought. He'd need to get to know the squires better. They seemed like awesome people. And if this event was anything to go off of, there was nothing he wanted more than being a champion. Yes, there had been loss and suffering and that hurt. But there had been excitement, adventure, and limits broken.

He knew better than to say that out loud in the face of grief though.

He was shuffling people along when he saw Cub trot past carrying a familiar looking young girl. Instantly, he broke off and moved along with the other Silenus, "Where's your family, little one?"

Chee looked at Cub as the girl cried and made sounds that said everything that needed saying. But Cub gave him a brief description of the details. He glanced over to where Meena was crouched over the mangled form of this Haim and bit his lip. He slowly scanned the gathering group of settlers and travelers and felt sadness welling up. He turned to look at the pass and knew there was a chance these people lost nearly everything. Taking their lives from this was a win, yes, but Chee knew what it was like to go on living without a foundation. He could easily imagine what his life might have been like without Grandma and the others at the orphanage. Many of them had one another though. And the bridge might yet be salvaged.

He clapped Cub on the shoulder, "You're a good one, dere, Cub. A good one." He sent a look of sympathy to the girl. She probably had an aunt or uncle somewhere to look after her. Some family somewhere. She'd be alright.

He turned when Jayce approached to reveal that Alcornis had gone over. Chee clicked his tongue. The man had been more a mercenary than Chee, but he didn't deserve that. Chee looked to the chasm and sighed. "Someone oughta look fer survivors, ya?" He looked to Jayce and then Cub, "I can prolly recall all de ones what oughta be in Alcornis' caravan. I traveled with dem fer a bit. Fer a headcount. And I can try'n help Cub scout down if'n folks wanna try dat." He bit his lip and looked to Meena. He didn't need her permission for anything, really, but he felt like he should run stuff by her. He chuckled at that. Make sure to keep things organized. It seemed like he'd be going back with them and the tube anyway. He looked around, briefly, for Azir who might also suffice rather than bothering the woman trying to save a struggling life. But not seeing him, he motioned to Jayce to wait and moved that way.

Rather than standing and waiting, Chee moved close and pulled his first-aid kit out of his pack. "Need anyting? An, I got an update on da caravan when you got a spare tought."

[Aethyrium]

Character Name: Azir Venris Kil-Mitter
Date | Time: November 6th | Late Evening (~9:20)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: As pictured
Tagging | Mentioning: Lyra | Velvet
There wasn’t a lot that he could do alongside her, except be present. If Lyra ran into a complication, he’d be there to face it with her. Periodically, his gaze would flicker into the chasm as his mind wandered to Artanis. Should he have told Velvet right then? He knew the answer was absolutely not, but that didn’t make him feel better about keeping it to himself. It was going to be worse, because she was going to want and try to go after him. He knew this, Velvet was far too kind and caring to not - no matter how obnoxious her partner was. But the reality was that they couldn’t stay in this valley. Going after Artanis was a mistake, no matter what anyone - him included - wished otherwise.

It was the bright light of Vesper’s arrow pulled him from his thoughts and he looked to the sky. Lyra’s words matched his thoughts. “Yeah.” He turned and jogged toward the nearest wagon, easily lifting himself up onto the top of it. He squinted into the darkness. It was hard to tell any details over such a great distance, but he didn’t hear the commotion that he had before. But as he stared at the pulsing, fading light, what else could it mean? Nodding, he turned, jumped back down, lurched the few feet forward and came back to her. “It looks like it.”

Her admission of fear made him frown slightly. Studying the color drain in her aura, he wasn’t sure that she should be the one trying to fix the bridge. But she was right, they should try. If the bridge fell, well, it was going to complicate getting home in a bad way. “I would assume it’s her.” He agreed, glancing at her sword. Azir met her gaze and furrowed her brow. He didn’t like the frown on her face. Truthfully, he never had. Lyra had worn too many frowns on this trip. There was no time to find his anger at Haimhehen. What was worse was that she was afraid, but that he could maybe do something about it. “Irona is strong. We should trust her to be able to hold it. But you’re better with Arcanite than I am.” Reaching to his belt pouch again, he plucked free a small green crystal and held it out in his palms, “You can fix it. We’ll go together.” Azir didn’t want to leave her alone, but it occurred to him that she had a point. “Or… You take this, and I’ll stay here. I’ll help Irona, while you try and fix the bridge.”

If they were going to plummet to their deaths in the chasm, Azir would rather be beside her. But staying here and supporting Irona, he figured, gave them their best actual chance of overall success. “I’m with you, either way.” Physically by her side, or supporting her here.

[FyreFoxx]

Character Name: Lyreilynn "Lyra" Xyrven Myalis
Date | Time: November 6th | Evening (~9:15pm)
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Rishi Valley - Needlepass
Wearing: Black long-sleeved top and matching skirt, with white overshirt with blue trim, black sash, flat ankle boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Azir | Irona, Vesper, Kiba, Lolo

Every moment Azir was out of her sight was agony, waiting with bated breath to hear the results of his scouting. When he returned to her side and confirmed that the bridge seemed to be clear, she felt her shoulders go slack as she breathed out a sigh of relief. “Good. That is good.” Then, if everything was going well, that would leave Irona, Azir, and herself left on the bridge, completely unaware that Vesper had decided to stay with Irona. Her Soul was fully orange now, the last traces of yellow having been drained away already, yet still she persisted.
 
Those silvery eyes landed on the Arcanite that Azir produced from his belt pouch and that frown deepened on her face. He was offering it to her. Earth was one of the few elements she had terrible control over. “But Azir, I—” She paused, biting her lip as she looked from the crystal to his face. He had faith in her to be able to fix the bridge, but could she do it? Her eyes fell back to the crystal in his hands, the gears in her head turning. Azir might have more Soul than she currently did, but she couldn’t know that for sure. Even after pouring so much of it into the crystal already, it had just reached the orange stage. And she knew her own control over Arcanite was vastly superior to most others.
 
But if she left to go mend the cracks, Irona was going to need all the help she could get. The more the bridge was held together, the safer it would be for her to try and fix it. “Stay here.” Lyra had made up her mind. If Azir could take her place, even for a few minutes, it would give her the time she needed. And… she made up her mind on something else, too. If something went wrong, if she couldn’t fix it, if they were going to die there, then she wanted no regrets.
 
“Azir, if anything happens, I just…” Why was she hesitating? The seconds were ticking by and the longer she waited, the worse things were going to become. Biting down on her lower lip again, she shook her head. No, no regrets. Letting go of the sword and black crystal, Lyra moved closer to Azir. With one hand, she scooped up the green crystal from his open palm while the other reached up to caress his cheek, that gentle smile of hers crossing her lips as she stared up into those lovely peridot eyes of his. “Te amo, Azir.” She stood up on her tippy-toes as she guided his face down to her own, feeling him reach for her in return as she pressed her lips against his eagerly waiting ones.
 
For just a moment, nothing else mattered to her except him. She needed him to know how she felt. If there was a chance they might plummet to their deaths, at least they would do so leaving nothing left unsaid between them. It was a sweet kiss, chaste, but full of emotion, with a touch of uncertainty. She felt his arms encircle her, like he was afraid of letting her go now. It was a far cry from how he once refused to even touch her beyond taking her hand.
 
After a brief embrace and a passionate moment, Lyra withdrew from his arms, the earth-aspected crystal in hand as she turned away from the elf, an almost sad smile lingering on her lips as she did so, her cheeks flushed, leaving him behind to support Irona in her stead as she clamored on top of the closest wagon. If she had any hope at all of repairing what was broken, she needed to be at the source of it all. Scrambling over the top, she made quick work of jumping from wagon top to wagon top, occasionally needing to make a running leap to cross an extended gap, before she arrived at where she suspected the largest crack to be. It was just a bit past where she and Azir had attempted to repair things before, before everything went haywire.
 
She gripped the crystal in her hand, carefully, staring at her fist with a furrowed brow. Lyra only had one chance at this, but… Lolo always believed in her, and Azir had faith she could do it. She had no choice but to succeed, if they were going to save this convoy and have a path home. Taking a deep breath, she held it for a few seconds, then let it out slowly as she dropped to her knees. Raising her hand to her chest, she clutched the crystal against her body, her other hand laid over her closed fist. “By the Light, please let this work,” she pleaded, her head bowed slightly, before, much like Azir had done, slamming her hand against the earth, palm size down, the Arcanite trapped between her hand and the pass below, pushing her Soul into the crystal to activate its effect, as much as she could sacrifice and as much as the crystal could safely handle. If everything went as planned, she focused on where the cracks were, expanding her senses, similar to what she had done back in the cave with Kiba, finding the weakened spots as she softened the earth around them. She thought about it like how she controlled water, like turning the earth into mud and collecting it together. Broken pieces of stone, kept in place by the magnetic pull from Azir and Irona, became like clay as it melded back into the pass, bit by bit gathering it all up, like collecting pebbles to form a boulder, before letting it harden back to solid stone, as if she were freezing it into ice. It wasn’t perfect, since quite a few chunks had long since fallen into the chasm, but with the Arcanite under her control, she was hopefully able to remedy those sections with fresh earth granted by the crystal while stabilizing the rest of the bridge with the newly mended cracks.

[Crash]

Character Name: Meena Tor
Date | Time: 11.06.1322 | 11:45am
Location: Johtan Wilderness - Anachem Outskirts | Grassland/Woodland - Water Resonance
Wearing: Green camo cargo pants, black long-sleeved synthetic weave zip-up over a black crop top and puffy black vest with snap on fur trimmed hood and hidden pockets, and Black combat boots
Tagging | Mentioning: Lyra, Velvet, Farrah, Haim
Every shutter and shake made her heart leap in her chest, a spike of fear she had to hammer back down and move on.  The last one caused Meena to brace herself against one of the smaller wagons that had miraculously escaped the blast that had rocked Needlepass.  Meena took a deep breath, closing her eyes to push the fear away.  Everything in her screamed; she was going the wrong way.  She should be moving toward safety like she had told others to do. Still, Meena couldn’t leave until she knew everyone who could reach safety did so, even if it meant another fall into the dark. This time, with no one there to save her.
 
At one point, Lyra passed Meena while helping an old man cross a section of the bridge littered with crates that had fallen off a wagon before it plummeted into the canyon depths.  Meena didn’t stop her.  She trusted her team to know where they were most helpful.  Meena’s line of sight was blocked by wagons and trucks while she checked each one for stragglers. People too frightened to move. Nerves scattered like sand in a storm. If Lyra was moving into danger, there must have been a good reason for her to do so.  As much as she wanted to know what that was, instinct told Meena to keep moving forward with diligent urgency.
     
Velvet found Meena, a small child clinging to her back, unwilling to let go of her. His face was buried into the mass of her white hair, streaked with dirt and grime. The pass groaned, but it seemed to have settled, which made it easier to coax reluctant caravanners into moving forward. The light pop and sudden whiff of vanilla torn away in the wind gave Meena just enough warning not to be startled by Velvet’s sudden appearance.

“Velvet,” Meena breathed with relief.  She had seen the Nevermore crash into the vanguard and worried for her friends, hoping they were okay.  Meena’s hands, clad in Artanis’s gloves, wrapped around Velvet’s almost immediately.

“I’m so glad you’re…” Meena didn’t get a chance to finish as the diminutive woman tugged at her, trying to direct her back towards the vanguard.  A look of confusion flickered across Meena’s face.

“Velvet…Arta…” Velvet tugged Meena again and waved off what she was saying.  Meena could see the bruises starting to form on Velvet’s arms and face; there were scratches and drying blood, but Velvet’s urgency stopped her from offering aid. 

“Haim?” Meena asked, but the concern in Velvet’s voice and her insistence caused Meena to nod. I’ll go,” she said, and just as Velvet let go, Meena held on for a moment longer.  “I…umm…stay safe…okay?” She asked. Velvet nodded. Meena turned to the little boy, clinging to her back.  He wasn’t letting go no matter what she said, so she didn’t bother.

“Hang on real tight, okay,” Meena instructed.  “And close your eyes.”  She felt little hands grip her tightly and legs wrap around her.  With a final nod to Velvet, Meena bounded towards the vanguard, worry and determination etching her face as she leaped from wagon to wagon.

***

Across the bridge, Meena set the boy down once she could get him to open his eyes.  Thankfully, his parents had made it across, likely separated in the attack, and he ran to them the moment he saw them.  Meena had no time to enjoy the moment, though, as Farrah was waving her over to a small cluster of people surrounding the prone form of a person. Farrah’s news was grim.  Meena gathered her into a quick hug.
 
“Thank you,” she said, proud that her partner, her friend, took charge of the situation without so much as an ask.  Some people might find Farrah brusk, even abrasive, but in a situation like this, where fear and grief overrode sense, someone like Farrah was exactly the person needed to get people ordered and moving.
 
Meena hurried to Haim’s side without preamble and began to assess the damage.  Farrah was right. It was grim.  Haim was alive, but for how long was very much in question.  She shrugged off her vest, the two ragged gashes under her shoulder blades visible, oozing blood every time she moved her arms too far in any direction.  If Meena was feeling the pain, she didn’t give any indication of it as she pulled out her canteen. Meena tugged Artanis’s gloves off and stowed them quickly, doing what she could to clean away the dried blood on her hands.   

She was aware of the others hovering around her. She could smell the tang of sweat and sweet citrus as Lolo paced nearby and the settling scent of ginger as Chee approached. All mingled with blood, anger, and fear. The air still hummed with ozone, practically vibrating with resonance, and faintly, ever so faintly, under it all was espresso and engine grease.

“I don’t know, but I will do what I can,” Meena answered Lolo as she assessed him.  “Tell me what happened to him,” Meena said to no one in particular. She was too focused on administering to Haim to look up. Meena’s hands moved over the smaller man’s frame, checking for hidden wounds and bruising that might indicate internal bleeding as Meena listened to the account. Bones needed to be set, but those were the least of her concerns after she ensured they hadn’t nicked a primary vein or artery when they snapped.  The shape of Haim’s body, twisted as it was, already swelling and bruising in grotesque ways, didn’t seem to have an effect on her, whereas others might have vomited at the way his leg bent in places it shouldn’t or how misshapen his swelling face looked. That part of Meena’s brain shut off while she worked.  Chee was next to her, now trying to help.  She might need it later, but there wasn’t much he could do for Haim.  This was squarely on Meena’s shoulders now.

“Update’s gonna have to wait,” Meena said as she opened her medical pack, taking out a small mortar and pestle. Her brow furrowed for a moment, questioning her choices, which had never been a problem before, but now, in the stress of the moment, in the dirt, in the dark, with actual life in her hands, she wasn’t sure. May she try…or perhaps… Why was it all jumbled now? 

Meena took a deep breath and closed her eyes. 

She was eleven, waiting outside Grandmother Danvi’s yurt, the old woman’s hand on her shoulder.  From the cool interior, she could hear Day’dalus’s whimpering.

“He fell…really far,” she was explaining. Davni could be a stern woman, but in the moment, lines of worry and warmth crinkled her eyes as she nodded.

“Yes. And he is bleeding inside.”

Little Meena looked up, her eyes welling with tears. 

“That isn’t going to help, little one,” her Grandmother said gently, more gently than she ever had. That worried Meena more than anything else. “But what do you do when someone is bleeding inside?”

She remembered looking up at her Grandmother and blinking in confusion.  “I…I don’t…”

“Yes, you do.  Tell me. What would you do?”

Meena thought and thought, her mind filled with fear and worry; she couldn’t grasp it.  Couldn’t focus.

“It’s okay, Meena. You’re still….”

“R….raise his feet. Make him ccc…comfortable?” Meena heard another moan. Her brother didn’t sound comfortable.

“Mmmm? Why?”

“Sh…shock.”

“Yes. We did that. What’s next?

Little Meena’s face scrunched.

“Suu..Mmm…SLOW!  Slow the bleeding!”

Grandmother Davni’s face wrinkled into a smile.

“How?”

“Oh…um…viperroot?” The words came out as a question.

“Are you sure?” Grandmother Davni’s face gave away nothing.

Meena thought about it and nodded.

“Viperroot,” Meena opened her eyes, reached for the oily dark green root, dropped it into the pestle, and began grinding. A soft green glow emanated from her and flowed down her arms onto her hands as she mashed the root into a pulpy mush, letting her shimmer infuse the medicine, bolstering its natural healing properties to something much more than itself. 

“We need a litter. A wagon, if we can get one off the pass, would be best, but if we can’t, we need to keep him as stable as possible while we move. I can slow the bleeding,” she said as she gently opened Haim’s mouth and packed the mashed root between his lip and gums, not so much that he could choke on it, but enough for the medicine to do its job. “It will buy us some time.”

That done, Meena pulled a syringe from her back containing a hefty dose of modern, fast-acting painkiller and injected him with it to keep him sedated.   She would need his broken limbs set as soon as possible, so she asked Chee to find what she needed to splint while Lolo knelt next to her, a storm of emotions roiling from her.  The vehemence from her friend caused Meena’s eyes to widen in surprise. It wasn’t that Meena didn’t share some of those very thoughts, but those concerns had been pushed so far back in her mind that the sudden burst from Lolo shocked them to the forefront.  She opened her mouth to comfort Lolo, but her friend was already stomping off toward the bridge. As much as Meena wanted to run after her, Meena’s duty put her right here.  Saving the man that she would have to turn over to the academy for discipline. If he lived to see it. 

The woman, Ocareena, offered another solution. It would be easy.  Just let Haim go be with his people.  He might have a better chance of living. What kind of life she wasn’t sure. Where Ocareena was heading, there were no advanced hospitals or rehabilitation centers. He could end up alive but with little mobility or function.  It would be easy to just let Ocareena take him and wash their hands of the mess that was Haimehen de Temps Infini. There was danger of taking him back to Onyx, but if she could keep him alive long enough, he might live longer, happier, maybe. Should that matter to her?  Him being happy.
Meena looked down at the unconscious man. No, it shouldn’t, she decided. If Lyra had been there, she would have asked her what she thought, but she wasn’t, and a decision needed to be made. Meena sighed. She felt she knew what was right, and it wasn’t easy.

“I’m sorry, but Haim’s place is with us for a little while longer,” Meena said to Ocareena.  “I can keep him alive long enough to get him back to Onyx. His father is there, so he is not without family.  Perhaps someday he will find his way back to you,” Meena offered, not unkindly.  But Haimehen had more to answer for, and that justice hadn’t been served. It wasn’t Meena’s place to decide his fate; her job was to keep him alive until he could face it.