knightsoflegend | atlantis ♔ bury anchors in our ghosts

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atlantis ♔ bury anchors in our ghosts

WHO || Amara, Zatanna, Lila, David, Emma, Hook
WHAT || The Knights head to the lost city of Atlantis to discover the truth about the curse of the Homo Magi
WHERE || Atlantis
WHEN || April 10th, 2015 [backdated].
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It's been two years since a mission in the Bermuda Triangle led to the discovery of the hidden home of the race known as the Homo Magi - the original race of pure-blooded sorcerers. Inflicted with a curse that causes them to fall in love at first sight with any mortal they see, they had secluded themselves there, taking slaves of those who were lost in the Triangle to help defend their city. On that ill-fated mission, the Homo Magi Amara fell victim to the curse, falling in "love" with David Charming and defecting from her people in order to have the chance to be with him. Now a danger to herself and potentially others, the Knights have sought a way to free her of her curse, so far to no avail. Lila, however, has finally convinced Amara herself to help, convincing her that the only way to prove that her love for David is real is to prove that the curse has no bearing on it. Amara has uncovered the location of the Homo Magi's original home: the lost city of Atlantis, where she believes they can uncover the truth about the curse's origins, and in so doing, a way to reverse it, and free her people of it once and for all.

To this end, the Knights are drifting out into the Atlantic Ocean in Hook's ship, seeking the whirlpool that will supposedly take them to the underwater city.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lila ... [ Emma's tone starts out warning, but as the shaking continues and takes Zatanna off her feet, Emma widens her stance to steady herself and concern raises her voice. ] Lila! I don't think we're welcome here anymore. [ Which means they should maybe get going. Her first priority is to get them all safely out of here. They can find a way to appeal to Poseidon from somewhere that's not

under the sea during an earthquake. She reaches a hand out to steady on Lila's shoulder, trying to rein her in. ]

[Killian also reaches for Lila, but with his reflex save of 12 he's not having a good time right now. He's about to be reunited with his one true love: the floor.]

[David's got a bit of cat like grace himself, apparently, because he doesn't even falter as he moves through the room to the altar (balance nat 20). He studies the surface for a moment, trying to see if there's a way to disconnect Amara from it.]

Amara?

[He's not leaving without her. He's not going to leave her to get crushed to death in the bottom of the ocean. He's the dumb hero that way so he's going to try and reason with whatever power is holding her there (diplomacy ~~crit fail~~ action point says 23).]

She's served her purpose. Let her go.

Edited 2015-07-03 04:00 (UTC)

She may go. But the one who blasphemes against Poseidon's name will suffer for this display. [ with that, the light suddenly pours out of amara towards the sky, illuminating every inch of the cavern around them for a few moments. abruptly, gold shackles appear around lila's wrists and ankles, snapping tighter against the altar to which they are bound, pulling her flush against it as amara gasps and comes back to herself, eyes widened as she tries to come to grips with what just happened. ]

Not bloody likely! [Killian moves across the floor to the altar, using the chain to pull himself upwards.] Is Poseidon's ego so fragile he can't take a single insult? [He tries to use his hook to open the shackles, with little luck (disable device 11 lol he tried). He looks wildly at the women around him.] Come on, one of you's got to have a spell to help her!

[ No. Emma reaches to grab for Lila, but she slips out of her grasp. An tight, impotent cry comes out of her and she rushes to the altar at her side, trying to pull at the shackles with her fingers. Dammit, no. The only reason Lila was down here in the first place was to help someone: she didn't deserve this. She was counting on Emma to keep her safe, and—

Hook's voice echoed in her mind, pulling her back to herself, out of her panic. She glanced back at him, keying into the logic, but there was no spell. Not that she had, anyway. ]

Screw spell! [ She backed off, pulling out her gun and firing two rounds at one of the shackles, trying to sunder it (atk 18 which includes a -4 i took to not hit lila presumably, atk nat 20. magic weapon dmg 7 for the first, dmg 20 for the second. ] Let her go! You're not keeping her here, dammit! [ She turned her gaze upward, shrieking at the temple. ] You want a prisoner? Keep me! Let Lila go!

[ lila jerks as the gold fetters cement her to the alter, but doesn't crumble from anxiety and stress because she's still almost entirely fueled by impotent outrage that they came all this way to help amara and it was for nothing. an endeavor more useless than scotland.

she jerks again as emma paws at the shackles and hook uses her chains like his own personal ladder, looking at him coolly like yes, a spell to break the enchantment of a god, of course those are so readily available. ah the power of teenage fury, she refuses to give poseidon the satisfaction of her upset, so she packs it away with the rest of her cage trauma in order to only be pissed off.

she only flinches when emma draws her gun because what the fuck she is attached to these manacles! there is a ricochet concept! ]

[ the first shot doesn't seem to do much... the second one however, busts open one of the shackles, but moments later, another appears to take its place. zatanna raises both hands, making her best attempt to dispel the magic, but she shakes her head and cries: ] It's too powerful!

[ the booming voice that echoes throughout the trembling chamber comes from no single source now, but rather seems to come from everywhere:

"You would accept punishment in her stead? Beg this mercy of me." ]

No! [Killian is not gonna leave here with either of his girls chained below the sea. And he's the one with the ship so he's pretty sure it's his call.]

[FUCK. FUCK FUCK FUCK. David looks over at Emma and every look on his face says no, don't do it. WHY COULDN'T THE THUNDER GOD SWING IN TO SAVE THE DAY ON THIS MISSION SHIT. He should have gotten Thor's phone number.

He grits his teeth and hopes that Lila can keep her mouth shut as he tries to weasel a way out of this that leaves no one left behind (diplomacy 21). In fact EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND LET DAVID TALK]

Please, Lord Poseidon, they aren't of this world. They don't understand your power, or your wisdom. Is there another way? Something we can do to make this right?

[A quest. A mission. Anything.]

[ Turning at the sound of his voice, a strained look of apology. After years of being abandoned, left by the people who love her, she knows precisely how cruel it is to do the same to him. To force him to leave her behind. Her blue eyes seem to understand that fact, which in a way, means understanding just how much they mean to one another.

But she turns her gaze to look down at Lila, and she knows that she couldn't live with herself if it was Lila who was left behind here. Especially here, when she knows how Lila's been trapped before, how much this would destroy her. ]

You have to save Amara. [ She knows all too well that Lila won't respond to her reasoning beyond that, that she'd fight and war against Emma's need to protect her because that's a maternal love that Lila doesn't want. And yet, tears forming in her eyes, there's no ignoring the maternal way she moves hair out of Lila's face, a reassuring palm smoothing against her cheek. ] You're the only one who can bring my dad home.

[ Henry has Regina, and Neal. He won't be alone. Faye believes she's better off without Emma. The answer seems clear to her, now. Out of anyone, Hook was the one losing the most if Emma stayed, but as in all things, she believed he could survive it.

David's voice echoes in the background, and though she doesn't expect anything to come of his plea, she will give him room to make it while she makes her pittance of a goodbye before sacrificing herself in Lila's stead. ]

[ "A price must be paid for this insolence. One of you must pay it. This woman seeks to do so, this Emma Swan. If this is so, she will carry a curse upon her own head, one that will allow all of you to go free.

This curse will bind her, until she has earned the attention of the Lady of Magic, and done some great deed for her, in Poseidon's name."

amara looks around anxiously, before urging: ] Take the offer, or we all die here. Don't be a fool.

[ as the shackles reform around her wrists, she reflexively yanks at them, ignoring david's conciliatory pleas because they're angering her off even more. emma's words draws her attention though and she shakes her head stubbornly, but before she can protest, poseidon is speaking again.

no, that still sounds like a horrible plan, but trying to talk emma out of anything is like trying to persuade a brick wall. another curse is not what they fucking need, especially one from poseidon who apparently thinks free will doesn't exist. ]

Does that mean... you leave with us? [ she's addressing emma, because fuck poseidon. ]

[ She moved her hand, squeezing Lila's and looking back down at her. ]

Sounds like it. Either way, if it means getting all of you out of here … it's worth it. [ When she said 'all of you,' it was pretty apparent in the thickness of her voice that she meant Lila specifically. She released Lila and stepped back, looking to Amara, David, then up at the light at the top of the temple. She shouted over the temple's quaking. ]

I'll pay it! Just let them out of here!

[David knows the value of making a sale and will not speak until Poseidon agrees one way or another. The first person who speaks in a deal usually loses, he just wants to make sure that everyone gets what they want so they get out of here alive.

He just hopes that everyone else is just as sensible about it.]

[ ♬ human - of monsters and men

"So be it. Until the Mother of all Magic is satisfied, you will carry this burden by nightfall, that you may learn some respect for the power of the sea." with that, another blast of light appears, coursing all around emma, through her, all the way to the ceiling as the rumbling continues. the light seems to fill her, to expand, until the cream of her skin pales to white. the green of her eyes glows brighter, practically emerald, and her hair splays up around her, waving in the water as it changes, deepens to green, until it's indistinguishable from seaweed. there's a sound like thunder as the light retracts sharply into her, and an inhuman howl would make its way out of her lips. for a moment, she seems to change shapes again and again: to a mass of nothing but that dark seaweed, to a creature that looks something like a horse, but with those terrible green eyes and a weedy mane, and then once more to the deathly pale form that looks most like her. emma would feel a hunger course through her, a dark, angry spike of hatred accompanying it, and in that moment, she would know precisely what her punishment was: she was cursed to turn into a kelpie by night, a shape-changing aquatic creature fused with the spirit of the darkest waters. if she refuses to take solace in the waves before the sun touched down, she will find herself losing her mind to the monstrous nature of what she is, turned into her dark horse form, and be compelled to hunt and devour those of dry land.

in her nighttime kelpie form, whether humanish, or otherwise, she gains some abilities. in the meantime, lila's shackles dissolve into liquid, and she is freed. amara stares at emma in shock. ] What has he done to her?

Edited 2015-07-05 05:10 (UTC)

[ As the transformation came over her, Emma let out a yell, but what passed her lips was not her voice. She doubled over, fingers curling into the seaweed of her hair, tearing at it in an attempt to dispel the rage without lashing out at her friends. A staggered step carried her away from them, and she flinched away from Amara's demands, all too aware of the monster she'd become. ]

What he said he would. [ Slowly, she lowered her hands, looking on at them with her sunken eyes through hair like weeds. ] This is the price of leaving the temple. He made me into a monster.

Emma...

[Killian pauses for a moment, looking towards Lila quickly to make sure the chains are gone. They are, which means Emma's transformation is now the biggest thing he has to worry about. He steps towards her, holding out a hand.

She may be a monster, but she's still Emma Swan. Love may not break enchantments in this world, but he still believes it to be more powerful than any curse, and he does love her.]

It's just another curse we'll have to overcome. You're still you.

What do you say we get out of here before we manage to offend another higher power? [ zatanna urges, glancing anxiously around as rubble starts to cascade down around them. ] We know the source of the homo magi's curse now. And I might know what we have to do next, but I can't do it here.

[David's been watching all of this in silence, but at least it seems like they all can leave, which was the priority, in the end. As upset as he is about Emma's fate, it could have been worse, and they need to move.]

She's right. We need to get back to the ship.

[He extends one arm out, gesturing for the rest of them to move ahead of him as he brings up the rear.]

Let's go. We'll figure out the rest when we're back at sea level.

[ amara looks conflicted, staring as emma as though she feels some guilt over all this, but then she just nods and starts towards the door. ] Assuming no more aboleths have tracked down their friend.

[ lila seems too stricken to move for a moment as zatanna and david espouse the logic of it. the shackles that held her to the alter are gone, but guilt holds her there instead.

she'd only wanted to help amara, selfishly, so that every time she saw her she could stop being bombarded by the shame of remembering what she had done when she was cursed by shandra. she would think she was better and then there would be amara and lila could just feel it swell up inside her from this tangible reminder of greg and cassel.

they're no closer to saving amara and now she's ruined emma's life, too as amara starts to move though, she follows like attached by a tether, shamed gaze averting from emma. she has hook for comfort and if lila tried she would only make it worse. everything she touches turns to nightmares, she should have known better. ]

[ Strained hints of hope burgeoned in Emma's gaze as she looked upon Hook. For a moment, her hand reached out for his, ready to take it, but David's words pierced that veil. In a panic, her hand shrunk back into her side, clumping in near her trunk like piled seaweed.

She could leave Atlantis with them, and she turned in a rush to follow Amara, Lila, and Zatanna onward, but she couldn't leave the ocean. Not like this. Not tonight. But that problem would be something to address after the ensured there were no more aboleths to deal with.

She offered no explanation to Hook for her standoffishness, gliding in a green mass towards the exit of the temple. ]

[ the cost seems clear as they reach the ship, although the quaking below the surface might have alerted more things to their presence. zee again suggests they don't dally, and urges hook to get the ship moving, lending what magical assistance she can to his pilot check. ]

[ lila is the opposite of helpful, slumping against the side of the ship and absently rubbing her wrists like she can still feel the golden shackles against her skin. maybe if she rubs hard enough she'll stop feeling it. ]

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