manhattan ♔ there is no knot so steadfast | it won't go broke in the middle of monsoons

[silvermaid]

♬ two years before the mast - astronautalis

WHO || Violet Reedhym, Luthir Reedhym, Myrilandel de Tanos, Finnick Odair, Anastacia O'Keefe, Faith O'Keefe, Nicholas Starkweather
WHAT || The Knights attempt to free Vi from the influence of the Nightmare God Malaak'a
WHERE || Manhattan, New York
WHEN || June 7th, 2014
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

Some choices are almost impossible to make. For a year, the Knights have watched Violet fading, the way she always does with the winter thanks to her connection to her mother Persephone. Except in this case, there was no getting better with the arrival of spring. If anything, she's only spiraled further into depression, and it's clear that if this continues, it will spell the end of her sooner than later.

Keijen Blade appeared to several of the Knights in their dreams, to caution them of Vi's impending fate, and to tell them that their plan to save her will end in blood. Of course, he had his own alternative to offer: that she take a deal from Malaak'a that would allow the god to see through her eyes into this world. Realizing that the plan offered by Sehanine to use Faith O'Keefe's dreamwalking ability to sever the connection might simply result in someone giving their life to save hers, Vi agreed to take the offer in one month. However, on the evening of their wedding, Luthir talked her into going through with the goddess' plan, promising not to go into her dream with them.

Their car pulls up in front of Des' horrible rundown apartment building, where they're meant to track down Nicholas Starkweather - a friend of Des', who is apparently also a unicorn. Look, he knows people.

Comments

[moonheart]

[ as the concert hall darkens around then further, there's the very distant, muffled sound of four gunshots, and then nothing. faith turns to look between the unicorn, vi, and luthir. ] The fifth aura. Did you want to...?

[graveflowers]

...sure. [ NO TIME LIKE THE INTERMISSION OF A NIGHTMARE. ]

[desperatewarning]

[Nick nods and steps forward, lowering his head to focus on Vi. There's a tense moment as he concentrates, and then he steps back again, surprised.]

It's very slight, but it's a pure soul. [He shakes his horsey head in a unicorn gesture of delight, clearly expecting that to be enough.] Congratulations!

[graveflowers]

[ ahahahhahahahaha hahahahahahaha hahahah ha. ...ha. ]

Oh.

[ she's a little too distracted to be happy, honestly, and she can't remember how happy is supposed to feel regardless so the very idea of that emotion feels foreign to her. she smiles a little, but... they're in the middle of a nightmare and when they're not, they're in the middle of a war, one that is escalating possibly to an actual war. how is she supposed to feel happy about bringing a tiny child into the middle of that? that's probably the worst thing they could do, give this war another innocent victim.

she's sure she'll feel happy about it eventually, but at the moment all she feels is distress that she was stupid enough to let it happen in the first place and a growing fear and panic that she is going to abandon her baby the way her mother did. or worse, leave her an orphan.

congratulations isn't exactly what's running through her mind. ] Thanks.

[luthir]

[ luthir just stares at the unicorn for a moment, before turning to lock eyes with violet, amazement and disbelief warring in his gaze. it's clear that he hadn't wanted to jump to hoping for the best, since things generally turn out hideous so maybe it was a horrible mutant game of thrones nightmare baby, but the confirmation that it's a pure soul means he can finally accept the possibility - and the reality. he reaches out one hand to the small of vi's back, staring down at her before he manages to say: ] The strongest light in all this darkness.

[ literally. there is literal darkness all around them. ]

[graveflowers]

Yeah. [ she still doesn't sound convinced, but who can really blame her for not being ecstatic considering the circumstances. ] Something like that.

[moonheart]

[ ♬ night terror - laura marling

they don't have very long to share in the moment or their emotional response to it anyway. the darkness begins to dissolve around them, and a few torches flare up dramatically with violet light on either side of a dais fifty feet above them.

the entire length of the room is something carved out of a nightmare-scape, and seems to bend oppressively around them, as if the entire room were continuously distorting, rather than sticking to any static rules of matter. the strange dark purple material that makes up the floors and pillars and walls pulses, and a good spot check might be enough to catch a glimpse of an ever-changing kaleidoscope of images within them, each more nightmarish than the last - contorted faces hollowing in despair, spiders exploding out of mouths, hideous monsters whose limbs are bent at extreme angles turning to look towards them.

the towering throne above them, however, sits empty, unlike each other time violet has seen it.

faith turns in place, looking around at the disturbing room as luthir draws his blade. she glances back at vi. ] You're going to need a weapon. Whatever you can hold in your mind, you can manifest.

[desperatewarning]

[Nick, for all that he has been an adorable precious British unicorn during all this, stamps the ground with a hoof, lowering his head to brandish his horn threateningly.

Yeah, your bastion of goodness and light can fuck shit up and is ready to. There is an expectant mother and a descendant of Lurue all up in this shit. He is gonna smack some nightmare god ass.]

[graveflowers]

[ she doesn quite understand what faith means about holding in her mind, expression twisting in confusion. it doesn't help that malaak'a is not where he is supposed to be. he is supposed to be up on that throne, all purple and black and white. ]

I don't... what to you mean hold in my mind? Like, if I can imagine it?

[moonheart]

Something that you can not only imagine, but that you know intimately enough that you're not going to lose it when you're concentrating on the fight itself. Something you know as well as your own hand, if you have such a thing.

[graveflowers]

Okay. [ well that's easy. her bow. she knows it better than her own hand, actually. grey with age, grip worn into the shape of her fingers, her intials "vpf" scratched into one of the curves. she knows the story of how the bow was made better than she knows her own life story. she doesn't even need to concentrate on that. but she does anyway, remembering her birthday and how luthir's nimble fingers had coaxed her own into twisting the silky fabric around the string. ]

[moonheart]

Right on! [ Faith grins as she summons up a broadsword of her own, when the bow appears in vi's hands, quiver on her back. The smile turns to a frown, however, as the images surrounding them change from nameless horrors to a sudden fast and frantic and slowly louder assembly of images and screams from the parts of the nightmare they skipped over to get here. All around them, vi's friends and allies fall, screaming for her help, or just screaming their final words. It becomes cacophonous, filling the air, clawing into their minds as the faces flash through the mirrors. ]

[desperatewarning]

[Nick stamps the ground harder and shakes his head.] Coward tactics. He knows you're prepared to fight him, Vi. You've made him nervous.

[graveflowers]

[ she's not listening to the unicorn. she knew she couldn't have missed the rest, it would have been too easy that way. her eyes stay on a nearby mirror as she gently pulls an arrow from the quiver and pulls the string ready. all faith said she had to do was watch and that's what she does, ignoring the ringing in her ears from the hundreds of screams of pain. she tightens her grip on the bow, thumb brushing across the bright pink fletching of her arrows.

bright pink would look awfully good with malaak'a's purple armor...

she wants to be brave -- she's a princess of the underworld, her gifts can give life just as much as take it away, her legacy is the only thing that all creatures share: a first breath and a last. but she just feels like an exhausted kid, a shrinking violet. but she keeps watching, blue eyes firm. she can fight even though she's terrified. it's what she's been doing since she was thirteen, just a little bit longer and then she can rest. ]

It's fine. I've seen it all before. [ actual literal "been there, done that". ]

[moonheart]

[ faith nods at nick's assessment, standing solidly beside vi and the unicorn while luthir stands on vi's other side. the screams echo around them, dizzying, but after awhile, they start to change into something else, something angry and demanding. not the sounds of her friends, but the sounds of monsters, seeking her attention, banging on the glass because she dares to ignore them. faith nods at the line of mirrored surfaces, indicating vi's bow. ] Ball's in our court. Shatter 'em.

[graveflowers]

[ no need to tell vi twice. she looses the arrow and immediately nocks another to fire as well. (atks 26 & 22; dmg 10 & 5) ]

[desperatewarning]

[Nick devastates one of the mirrors with a horn attack (atk 20, dmg 16)]

[moonheart]

[ luthir smashes another one, as faith turns to watch each one destroyed by vi's onslaught of arrows ] Keep it up!

[ the mirrors begin to ooze some sort of dark substance, as if they are bleeding shadow, that puddles down onto the strange floor below them. ]

[graveflowers]

[ vi... keeps it up (atks 20 & 24) backing away from the shadow blood. ] Oh that's not fucking ominous at all.

[desperatewarning]

[Nick prances steps away from the shadow blood and slams his horn into another mirror. (atk 22, dmg 17)]

[moonheart]

[ faith backs up to stand by vi's side again to get away from it too, but the blood is creeping around the circumference of the room, and she winds up backing up straight into a puddle of it. like lightning, it courses up her leg, winds around her torso, and then as she opens her mouth to scream, it floods into her mouth, a disturbing amount of it as her eyes go wide in horror ]

[graveflowers]

No! Faith! [ vi doesn't even think, just reaches out to grab her. she doesn't know what to do but she can't just idly stand there and watch. ]

[desperatewarning]

[Nick abandons his stabbity, because DESCENDANT OF LURUE IN TROUBLE. MUST HELP. He casts a magic circle against evil, which... hopefully will protect faith and vi from the shadow blood.] I'll keep her safe. Go with Luthir.

[graveflowers]

I... [ she can't just leave faith, she's the whole reason faith is in danger in the first place. keijen's words tumble through her mind before she darts toward luthir. she's going to end this once and for all and then the combined force of clerics in nick's apartment can fix faith. they just need to get her out of there first. ]

[luthir]

[ luthir turns around to look at what nick is telling him to 'go' towards, and oh hey look. all those mirrors they shattered on the wall? now look like broken windows, that lead into a garden. and the rest of that shadow shit that isn't lapping around the edges of nick's circle, is all climbing up and out and into that beautiful garden out there. ]