Half-and-Half

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Gwathdraug
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Gwathdraug »

"Percy. This isn't a fight. Erin wants to kill him-"

From behind him Percy could feel a rumble shiver against his skin as the phantom growled deep and low - a sound from the chest instead of their throat.

"-but this isn't a fight. I need you to look at me and let me know you understand just two rules first: it isn't a fight and we walk in there and we do nothing that even touches at mana once inside. Nothing."
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Kokuten
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Kokuten »

Percival put a hand up to assuage any of Riley's fears, "No magical beasties, no firearms, no grenades and -- don't you remember? -- No magic! I couldn't cast a spell to save my life."

Part of it was trying to assuage his own fears of the situation. This could go very poorly if they weren't careful, and he feared a bit for Riley's sake, and her family's sake, more than his own. He feared causing damage just for his curiosity. That's how the day had started out, with a furious curiosity, and was careening down a river rapids of revelations he had no oar for.

"I'm the least battle-worthy person you know, Riley. Why, the only scars I can cause are emotional!"

He let that one sink in with a cheeky grin on his face for the cold room.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Gwathdraug »

Erin's finger made a mess of Percy's grin as it pushed against his cheek and distorted his expression. The phantom's single digit proved more than enough to force the alchemist's gaze to the side where his captor's expression - the shadows over Erin's face unlacing themselves - was comprised of flat greens eyes and lips creased into a firm, straight line. Their brow lowered as their eyes scanned Percy's face and for a moment the alchemist could feel the cold, worn dread that had weighed down the earlier darkness spreading up from the bottoms of his feet.

"We'll need a case to store your potions here." The sound of Erin's voice pushed aside the moment - everything seeming normal once more. They released Percy and casually pushed him towards the table where Riley was now standing with her back turned to him.

The stage magician's hands were doing a spider's work as she quickly thumbed and flicked through papers she had spilled from out of a bright green folder.

"Potions are just ammunition for him." Riley started, her voice quick as if it was trying to keep up with racing thoughts. "He can burn the mana out of a person so anything sitting in glass might as well be a box of matches. Spontaneous elemental conversion is how people think he does it - transforming someone's own energy as soon as they attempt to cast it and then blowing that channel open as a chain reaction - but none of that is confirmed." A finger tapped heavily against the table. "He's an elementalist but not by the standards of the modern usage. His body itself is bounded territory of the elemental planes - fire and wind for his arms, earth and water to his legs, his lungs light, stomach: shadow, and the eyes to lightning -" Tap. "It is 'family' magic and I can even see how-" Tap. Tap. " -my da never actually did avatars like I do. His final technique was Embodiments - where the single emotion was cut from the whole, rejected, and then was forced to possess the physical body and therefore become the whole until it twists back into place as excess energy is expended." Tap. "Alexis though I don't even know if-"

Riley stopped speaking. Her fingers just ryhthmlessly striking against the desktop.
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Kokuten
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Kokuten »

The Alchemist tried to catch his breath, it was like Erin was trying to make him as anxious as Riley.

He let out some air in a few easy sighs as he was guided over to her, being firmly led. Listening to the disjointed information, he unbuttoned his vest, revealing the bandoleer for potions he wore under it, slotted with multicolored vials. There was a gun holster attached, along with a small pouch. As he tugged the vest off he considered the level of danger that seemed to increase as Riley spoke. It was unusual to hear her so unnerved, and now it was starting to get to him. The moment made him realize just how much he relied on her for emotional support in tough situations.

The leather bandoleer gently unfurled onto the table, and he wrapped his arm around her.

"Riley. Look away for a moment, look at me if you can stomach it."

He waited a second, not sure himself on how to push on, but instead just speaking more.

"Why not let Big Brother handle this one? Tell me what I need to know and I can go in for you. He wouldn't know me from Adam; has no reason to. I'm quite good at distracting strangers."

And unsettling them, apparently.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Gwathdraug »

You don't get it.

"Percy-"

How do you not get it?

Riley stopped tapping her fingers. Her hand curled up, gripped tight into a fist, and she was still keeping her eyes fixed solely on the papers scattered in front of her.

Why would you say that you only cause emotional scars? Why would you even think for a second that saying that would do anything but make me angry?

"How can you -" Closing her eyes again Riley breathed out heavily. Tilting her head up towards the ceiling the stage magician pinched the bridge of her nose again. Exhale, one, two, three, four, five- inhale.

Riley opened her eyes, but kept her fingers against her face and continued to look at the ceiling. "What part of the last ten years-"

Why-whywhywh-

"-would you say gives any credence to the idea that knowing me-"

Why would you say any of it? Was that kind of disregard what I shared between us?

"-means someone wouldn't know anything at all about you?" Dropping her hand Riley turned around. Leaning against the table behind her with her elbows against the edge the young woman's stances was casual and her face absolutely neutral. "I don't see any point in either of us being alone for this one."
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Kokuten
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Kokuten »

Percy was having a bit of trouble breathing. In the last ten years, he and Riley had shared a tight bond. From the second they met to the minute he walked in to this room he could always boast the connection, but at that moment...

He couldn't feel it. It was like being in a vacuum.

"I didn't think you'd talk much about me to your family is all," mumbled Percival, feeling a little silly to even say that. He had just walked out of a meeting where he did nothing but brag and rag about his sister. Unconsciously his hand rose, but the ghostly movement of his missing arm kept it down, as if it thought better of the situation.

Instead he used the restless limb to scratch his head, being placed in a situation where he wasn't sure how to proceed.

"I've been a bit bullish today."

The words had spilled from his mouth; the anxiousness was starting to bite at him.

"Never mind that. How do we tackle this, then?"
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Gwathdraug »

Riley placed her hand on Percy's shoulder and squeezed gently. Ducking her head the stage magician rested the top of her head against her raised wrist. As she found her voice the young woman kept her eyes directed towards the ground. "I'm-"

As the brunette spoke the entire room turned into an abyss. Each and every visible feature of the world - including their own bodies - was replaced by an expanse of velvet darkness. The window to the outside winked away like it had been forgotten as the bounds of reality seemed to slip.

Riley jerked her head up. All Percy could see was the other mage's eyes lined with a soft grey glow that lent none of its light to the rest of her features and failed to pierce through any of the surrounding gloom. The hand on Percy's shoulder flexed, but didn't tighten its grip, simply reassuring the alchemist that things could still be felt. Two new dim cuts through the dark moved into view as Erin closed the distance between themself and the pair.

Sorry children.

The words were felt - weighing and hooking themselves deep in the stomach - rather than heard. As the utterance twisted itself into being known a pure white slit widened into a toothless cheshire grin hanging between the three mages. The expression had no dimension to it - it didn't change with perspective and was always unerringly in the middle of a viewer's vision.

I would apologise for my servant, but- The white gash across the darkness moved like a mouth, but each word formed too quickly, was felt too soon in the audience's bodies, for the expression to be speaking. -the service it provides is far more valuable than this modicum of discomfort.

There was a pause and the sickles-worth of a smile winked out of existence as quickly as it had arrived. This time before the not-sound hit again Percy and Riley could feel something - some muscle - tensing indescribably.

If you care to follow we can travel bereft of prying eyes. Just a short walk.

As the slit in the world appeared again this time it was smaller - further away, awaiting a response.
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Kokuten
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Kokuten »

There was something nostalgic about hearing a voice from within, that nostalgia filled his heart with a yearning that was roasted dry by the unfamiliarity of the person behind the voice. Percival's mouth hissed as his breath entered through is teeth, a growing tingling in his mind as he felt himself move from one place to another, without having moved himself. Slowly, he tried to piece together the bits of evidence presented to him. The sensation of being elsewhere, an aggressive absence of light, the creature they were dealing with.

The truth seemed to sit in Percival's gut, and the realization was making him feel a bit nauseous. Instead of thinking further on it, he brought his one hand up to Riley's and gripped it tightly. A feeling of sickness continued to rise in his stomach, but he fought it down.

"A moment, please, I'm not..." Percy heaved, bringing a fist to his mouth, "Sudden... hmgh... sudden jaunts are quite unsettling for my... my constitution."

A small vein drew from a mote of grayness in his chest to where his left arm should have been. When it reached his shoulder, the sickness began to subside, and the dull line faded. "Mmgh. I'm alright."

Percival looked at the figure in the distance, giving it a stare with eyes that would look withered if they could be seen. He took a step towards it, before looking back at the shapes he could trace as the eyes of his sister(s). "In my experience, barring any other options, it pays to acquiesce. Albeit, the last time I did so I ended up inside an egg as an alternative to being consumed by greater deity."

He took a step, and then stopped, turning again. "Not trying to hyperbolize, that actually happened. "
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Gwathdraug
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Gwathdraug »

I would not think to impose past your limits Percival, but for political reasons we do need to ask Lord Alstad her opinions here.

From either side of Percy two low growls sounded amidst the darkness.

"Valsted, I could make this an Issue-" The voice that spoke was further off from the alchemist than the woman next to him and Percy could just barely see in the distance where the light of Erin's eyes had narrowed down to faint slits against the shadows.

But. You'd lose. It does do a heart good to see that becoming un-unnamed has stripped away some of the cowardice you've been rotting in for so long though. The gash in the darkness slimmed down to a self-satisfied line. It seems my fellow Lord does not want to make an affair of things so do take as long as you need my boy.

"Perce." Riley whisper was insistent. "Don't let your thoughts wander here. One mind, one path okay? This is a..." The alchemist could hear once again his sister growl and there was a rush of heat as the breath that left her mouth was hotter than natural. "...a test. There's only one way out and there'd be no way for me to get back in without his permission if we did this and you weren't ready."
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Kokuten
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Re: Half-and-Half

Post by Kokuten »

"There are different ways to move," said Percival, "but I can't see them right now."

The Alchemist reached to the empty spot of his shoulder, "This body is still new. Untested. Like a loose glove. It's not the same as the typical form of a middle realm denizen, it doesn't seem to handle translations as well as yours. My mind is fine. Just... feeling queasy. Like a rubber band stretched too far."

Percival patted his chest as if searching for something.

"Ah. I threw my journal in the fire."

Then, he let out a little grunt. "I'll just have to remember this moment for later."

He looked over his shoulder, once to the right, and then once to the left.

"Quite ready, then."
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