Session 83: rooD ehT nI dniW A
Linnet's winds have returned.
Under the guidance of Yna Mjrwin, in the shadow of her homeland, with the strength and conviction and respect and compassion and resolution of her friends, Linnet's winds have returned.
A journey that started in the aftermath of one of her darkest moments, nearly torn apart in a factory in the middle of Machanon, a life nearly snuffed out due to her habit of getting in over her head, an existence that nearly drained away due to her tendency to put others before herself to the point of self-destruction, a soul restored when her friends would no longer accept "I'm fine" as an answer.
Linnet is whole once again, and the Starfall's kitchen will never be the same.
Though the kitchen itself will have to wait, as the Starfall finds itself drifting along the lake bordering Sainé, with the officers and some of the tenured crew members enjoying the early evening sunset...
**
Celeste is trying out fishing, and has convinced Isa to take a stool to the edge of the deck with her, though she hasn't been able to figure out if Isa does or does not know what she's doing. When one keeps a straight face for their entire life, one keeps a certain mystique about them.
Rahel is a constant dervish of terrible singing and incredible dancing, just overjoyed to have Linnet back. Her voice gave out hours ago, but that doesn't stop her.
Shula is also overjoyed, far more restrained than she normally is, joining in the singing, trying to stay out of the dancing.
Jasper is jovial and chatty, full of booming laughs and boisterous back-slapping. This all seems centered on Bast for some reason.
Marina is nodding along by the door to the bridge, sitting in a chair balanced back on two legs — she was out here first, and the music that was playing earlier seems to have gone away, but the noise of the officers and their friends are more than filling the space. Bast leans on the railing by Celeste, between bouts of Jasper's attention. "If this isn't working, there's a faster way I can show uoy." "Oh, please do!" Celeste says, eyes wide with The Joy Of Learning. "No explosions," Isa says quickly. "Bast, no dynamite fishing, please. You have more important things to use those explosives for."
Linnet has been trying to change the subject away from herself with very limited success, but she's also been performing aerial stunts for everyone's amusement; these two goals are somewhat in conflict. Bast steps back from the railing with an exaggerated sigh, and whispers a "Maybe later" as he passes by Celeste on the way towards the bridge. Shula has occasionally added harmless flashes of fire up around Linnet, some very minor makeshift fireworks. (For a group that's not supposed to be here, they're not doing a very good job of concealing anything, but Peregrine seems to have no objections, and the crew as a whole are in such a chill mood that it's hard to say no to anything.) Orrey has gathered a small group of the crew to play some cards. Not your ordinary deck, but one based off of the Twelve and Alternan Politics that he has hand drawn and crafted. Linnet ruffles Orrey's notebook and his hair, but not his cards, with two different tiny breezes and spins above Hawk's head contentedly. "So, where's your next tour, brother? Off to break new ground, invent new forms of sneaking into places, write a new concept album?" Yves is, surprisingly, not on deck. Not even to try out the new card game. He's been absent for the last hour or two, and--oh, there he is now, slinking quietly out to join the party. Rather... damp. It is possible the zero-gravity-ready water feature is still not ready for all gravity variations, zero or otherwise. "Well, I'll be getting back together with the band," replies Peregrine, "so when you're heading into the Triad, drop me back off. We've got a tour heading down into Caerwyn next month, which is only partially a cover for some of the highly illegal-until-it's-not fun stuff we get up to. Then I think we're going to actually record some new stuff, got a place lined up in Saron with better acoustics now that we can afford it." Linnet sinks down and hugs him from behind. "Thank you again for dropping everything to come save me from myself. And know you're welcome back anytime. And, um, if you leave any sort of forwarding address, you might be getting some letters. You've got a few fans onboard." By the bridge, Bast wordlessly passes a flask to Marina.
Marina takes the handoff smoothly and immediately puts the flask to work. Isa nudges Celeste. "You've got a bite," she notes. "Oh shit!" Celeste says, gripping the rod with both hands. "Okay. I know what to do. Okay."
She braces her feet and starts to reel the fish in, carefully biding her time, studying the tension in the line, and definitely overthinking every aspect of this. Leaning back on the wall next to Marina, Bast surveys the deck - Starfall lazily drifting, the crew at ease, with nowhere to hurry and nothing to fight, just passing the time. This is...nice? "Maybe we should dunk this ship in the water more often, eh, Captain?" Marina asks after an enjoyable stretch of silence.
The fish Celeste is battling with certainly isn't one that should be worth all this effort, but Celeste hasn't found an activity that will defeat her yet, and fishing isn't going to be the first. But it's a very, very clumsy start. Bast looks down - well, mostly sideways - at her from where he's standing. "Tahw saw taht?" His glance lingers a little on the flask. Marina pauses, flask at the corner of her lips. "Captain?" she asks. "Uoy t'ndid knird eht elohw gniht ydaerla, did uoy? Ti skaens pu no uoy." He looks somewhat concerned. Marina stands up, keeping a close and careful eye on Bast. "Captain, I can't understand a word you're saying," she says, looking just as concerned. Isa looks over towards Bast, the hand that was supporting Celeste's rod falling away ignored. Linnet makes her excuses with some cheery whispers to her friends, encouraging them to carry on carousing, and floats over. "Voices down, everyone." Orrey starts attempting to write down Bast’s words in reverse letter order every time he talks. "When did this start? It was occasionally before, but what is this now?" Marina asks Linnet as she approaches. Bast's distinctly unamused gaze swings over to Linnet. "Era uoy dnurk oot? I t'nac ekam tuo yna fo taht." Linnet makes a universal gesture for "quiet the hell down." “Ti…it…skeins, uh, is that sneaks?” Orrey scribbles more and mumbles to himself. Isa blinks. "Sorry Captain, I couldn't make that out." “Are you drunk too?” Orrey says. Yves has not yet caught on to the current topic of conversation, despite his proximity. He's muttering something about fluid dynamics not respecting sensible laws of magic as he stares over the railing into the water. “Tsab, nac uoy dnatsrednu em?” Orrey asks his captain. Bast looks over at Isa, then Orrey, then back at Isa and shuts his eyes altogether. "Llew, kcuf em syawedis. S'ti em, t'nsi ti." He loosens his shirt and rubs at his forearms like trying to soothe a deep bruise.
His fingers stop for a moment, then pick up again with a purpose, as if searching for - following - something. "Yeah, it's you," Linnet confirms. "Which is why I'm trying to keep the volume down before everyone, uh, makes the same opening statement you just did." He suddenly pushes away from the wall, striding past Linnet and dodging around Orrey on his way belowdecks. “Each word running backwards on it’s own, but not changing the word order of the sentence. Very odd.” Orrey comments, dealing out the cards again. He's holding one arm tightly with another as he disappears from view. Linnet makes a conciliatory "carry on, I'll go see what's up" gesture and hurries after him. Yves looks up from the waters below the ship, and blinks to see Bast disappearing belowdecks. Followed by Linnet. "...okay, I missed that," he says. Below, Bast pauses for a moment, then keeps going down past the officers' quarters. Isa rises to her feet. "Alright," she says to the remaining deck dwellers. "We're not taking off yet but start making ready." Celeste has succeeded in snapping her line, and promises her revenge. Growing increasingly concerned as she loses sight of her captain, Linnet speeds down through the Starfall after Bast, dodging conversations left and right. Down. Down and aft. Bast is running by the time he reaches the cargo hold. The doors are partly open, which is against regulations -- either brace them fully open or close them entirely. He can get through; that's all that matters right now. One of them gets shouldered aside. There has been fighting in here.
Apoc is down, crumpled against the crates of bluespirit you liberated from Jozech, in severe pain, bleeding badly. His silver rapier lies on the ground next to him.
Lily is crouched in front of him, her own rapier up in a defensive position. She has been losing a fight.
Akil and Runa are hiding in the far corner, hands over their heads, not even wanting to peek around the corner of the crate hiding them from the commotion.
Juniper is unconscious behind them.
And in the center of the room...
The sylph standing with her back to the door is wearing a cropped blue jacket over a bright orange top, black jeans, and heavily-zippered ankle boots. Her hair is a whipping, growing braid of pink mixed with green. She holds a bag stuffed with clothes and supplies over her shoulder, and shards of bloodied ice circle her left hand.
She looks over her shoulder, Cirri’s eyes above Linnet’s nose, Linnet’s mouth with the curl of Cirri’s dubious expression. There is nothing dubious about the look in her eyes, though.
".evila moor siht evael lliw uoy fo enoN"
She turns, ready to fight. "Oh fuck right off, whoever you are." Still breathing heavily, Bast brings up his crossbow.
The captain's bellow of "HELP IN THE HOLD!" throws off his aim somewhat. It'll only take a moment to line it up again... Linnet skids to a stop outside the room - apparently you can still skid when you're not touching the ground. "Bast! Guys, didn't we just go through - Cirri?!? What the - shit. No time." She flings a few desperate stabilization heals at Apoc and Lily from the doorway, meets the eyes of Akil and Runa in a shared "we've got you" moment, and settles in behind Bast. Up on the deck, Isa looks towards the hatch Bast and Linnet disappeared into. "Fuck," she says, followed quickly by "Trouble!" and then wrapped up in a neat little bow of hauling ass below decks. "...I don't know who you are, but you have taken advantage of my kindhearted nature," Linnet begins to spin a blizzard around her own fists, "and I do not appreciate it." The ice around Cirri?'s fist begins to whirl in response, and in tandem, both circles rise up and wham right into the mutated sylph's shoulders. Fists of ice pummel her much as one could imagine Linnet would if Linnet had ever learned how to punch. "Leave my friends alone!" Tennil Neardi moves simultaneously with Linnet, though she whips her left arm up to throw a White Magic spell out around her, Tnevrev, and then lets loose a right-armed Agarif into her smudged mirror counterpart. She then follows that with a less graceful cast, a two-handed push of Agazzilb at Bast. "That is not leaving my friends alone!" Linnet drops behind Bast and tries not to panic. "We've got this...somehow..." Yves is booking it after Isa, because whatever the heck is going on, he should probably make sure that he's 1) there to help make sure it goes right, and 2) not too far away from the officer voted Best To Stand Behind During Battle. Orrey hears the commotion below and grabs his watch and knife. Knowing there's only one way to get there fast, he Hastes himself, purple clock aura nearly matching his hair color. Zipping past Yves and then Isa, he bursts into the room just as the fiery blasts dissipate, brandishing his knife. Bast, losing his hold on the crossbow as he's thrown one way and then another between two magic blasts, yanks a vial off his belt. With his throwing arm on fire, he doesn't so much throw as smash it on the floor in the general direction of Tennil.
The smoke that rises in a cloud around her is only slightly caustic. Not enough to eat through, say, skin without extended exposure. Hard on the eyes, though. Isa storms the hold, her preferred big stompy boots making big stompy boot noises on the diamond plate floor. She has exactly as much time as it takes her to reach Tennil to decide on her tactics...
...she decides to just haul off and deck her with an armored fist. Linnet decides to stay back and just panic-heal the Captain and not tell him it's a panic heal. Tennil moves confidently, staying on the offensive even after getting punched in the face by a tall angry lady. ".dluoc reve uoy fo rehtie naht efil retteb raf a dael lliw I" Another Tnevrev shields Tennil, and a Arazzilbrev swings in to catch both Linnet and Orrey in its path. There was an inkling of this coming, the sense of impending magical doom lingering in the back of Orrey's mind. He snaps out his hands in a sign some might recognize as a holy gesture of the Twelve just as the magic dies down, and fires a tornado of bright, jarring light, Addling her...except he DIDN'T predict the Vervent blocking his attempt, and the light fizzles out in a flash as it takes down her defenses.
"If at first you don't succeed..." Orrey says, grimacing as he repeats the spell once again.
Orrey Hastily advances after the spell, slashing his knife at Tennil.
A sharp, unexpected kiai and a hell of a slash and Orrey is panting and shocked at how well that went. Isa gives Orrey a look that starts with mild surprise, and ends with a proud nod. Yves runs into the smoky room as fast as he can sprint, and thus straight into a face full of the oddest-feeling magical ice he's experienced in, oh, at least a few days. Possibly even weeks. (It's been a very strange time since he got a train that once, really, so things like this are just part of his life now.) "What the--" Rather than finish that sentence with appropriate levels of profanity, or try to assess anything tactical, Yves figures out who's the current hostile entity in the room, and snaps his fingers in that direction for a hasty, yet pointy, burst of the sparkiest type of thunder he has on hand. Some of Tennil's confidence is flagging, but she's not going to give in. ",noitcefni ,eiD" she says to Bast, and then fires her own Agadnuht at the Captain. Bast reaches down to scoop up his crossbow, left hand already going for another vial - then the choice is taken from him by an arc of lightning that bends his spine backward like a bow. He falls over at Linnet's feet, arms spasming once, twice, and then still. Isa catches sight of Bast's fall, and the gloves come off. Not literally; the gauntlet stays on. But she draws it back into a defensive posture as her other hand brings forth her spear, snapping it forward viciously to slash and jab. Tennil grunts out a low "tihs" as she tries to defend herself, not faring anywhere near as well up close as she does slinging spells. Tennil Accelerates herself, unleashing a pair of Agazzilb spells, one on Linnet, one on the tall lady who won't stop punching and stabbing her. Linnet closes her eyes upon seeing Bast fall and drops to one knee beside him. "Everyone, could you please beat the fuck out of whatever that is while I see to Bast? Thank you." Surprisingly calm in the face of the shitstorm, she sets to work in a field of cool spice-scented blue light. Every time Tennil fires off a spell, Orrey, seemingly without control over his actions, fires another Addling ball of light at her.
Orrey shakes off the spell surge and readies another one, opening a circular portal to...somewhere ..that glows with swirling green and purple light. It sucks her in, but only disrupts her being rather than throwing her out of existence on this plane.
Then Orrey reaches for his gun, not messing around anymore with the knife.
A blast of golden light explodes out of the end of the Ultimate Armageddon, catching Tennil a glancing blow off of her side, and part of the shot ricochets back and impacts Orrey, who shrugs off the pain and maintains his aim. "Got it, Linnet," Yves says, not so much calm as trying to concentrate on throwing lightning at whatever the heck is going on and whoever the heck just dropped the captain that hard. Which is to say, he slides and flicks lightning through the air, and with a churn of mana, somehow does it... even more so.
Much more so.
It is a lot of lightning. With accompanying thunder. In a room like this, it's almost deafening, two rollicking crescendos of blue-white bolts sending out their clashing echoes in a way that would do a multi-cannon salute proud.
And every last bit of it is concentrated on one single point: the Whatever That Is requested as a target by Linnet, who Yves would really like to keep happy right now, on both general reasons of crew solidarity and specific ones of this being the wrong day to mess with his friend. Bast jerks back to life with a gasp, almost headbutting Linnet in the face as she is working on healing him. "Hello to you too." Linnet hugs him briefly, then sets about distributing Cura spells among everyone on the floor. "Yves, Isa, leaving you in charge of that thing."
"...I'll apologize later for bringing her onto our ship, but that is not the Cirri I met." Tennil Neardi is on her side in the center of the cargo hold, broken and defeated.
As they watch, she... disintegrates.
Slowly, painlessly. "-oh. That's all over, then?" Bast raises his head in a more controlled fashion, then slowly peels the rest of the way off the floor. "Orrey, when was the last time someone told you you're pretty badass?" Linnet asks offhandedly. "Because we need to tell you that more often." Yves watches the disintegration with great interest and mild horror. "...that's new." Orrey blushes a bit at the compliment. "Just doing my part is all." "I mean, I hope it's new and hasn't been happening regularly without me noticing, because that's... uh..." Yves swallows his words. ",evil ot teg uoY .niw uoY" she tells Linnet. Having mostly whirled herself out and made sure nobody's going to bleed out in the hold, Linnet kneels by what she thought was Cirri.
"I'm sorry. You're not really her. I don't know what you are." "...I should... maybe... I mean, that's not a side effect of fixing things." Yves drops his voice on that last part, to aim toward Isa, not sure of who else to ask an awkward question like that. "It's probably not, right? ....probably?" "I hoped we could be friends; I hoped I could figure out a way you could live happily and join our crew and have adventures and a new life with us. But you're not Cirri, and that factory did something awful to you, and whatever I did to your crystal didn't really bring you back," Linnet concludes. ".yawyna gniyd m'I tuB .eid ot evila t'nsaw I tub ,gniyd m'I .uoy ro reh t'nsaw I .reh t'nsaw I .irriC dellik tnedicca ehT .evila saw reven I" She hangs her head, as her braid breaks apart into flickering motes of pink and green. "I'm sorry it had to end like this." ".uoy evol yeht hcum woh htiW .t'ndid I dalg m'I kniht I tuB .niaga yrt dluow I ,dluoc I fI .uoy dellik evah dluow I" Linnet spins a tiny whirlwind in the trail of Cirri's dissolving motes, to carry them far afield. ".uoy dekil evah dluow ehs kniht I .Cirri tem evah dluoc uoy hsiw I .Linnet ,eybdooG" The names are said properly, the only clear words since the fight started.
The little whirlwind disperses what was once Irric Neardi. Linnet checks the floor for anything left - particularly that stupid crystal. Nothing remains. By the end, Yves has mild interest and great horror in his view of the process. "Does anyone have any idea what happened there?" Isa asks. Linnet whispers a quick prayer, then stands and surveys the room. "Well, that was unpleasant. I owe you all an apology for bringing on a new crew member without any sort of proper vetting, but...yeah, can't say I had any idea that was going to happen."
"Apoc, Lily? What the hell broke all this out?" Juniper is still unconscious, but stably so. Apoc is at least not getting any more blood on anyone else's costume, at this point.
"Bast, you can stand, right? I'm sorry, that wasn't my best work, but at least you're awake."
"...and coherent." Orrey helps out the healing process with a few Rejuvenations to reverse the magical damage. Yves, finally paying attention to things other than the immediate hostile in the area, sees the rest of the damage under the dissipated grenade smoke. "...oh infinity and rot, really?" Bast, with one hand on a nearby crate, waves off Linnet's apologies. "Worked well enough from where I'm standing." Lily has not put her sword down, and will not for at least the next three days. "Cirri came in here to steal Meteor," she says stiffly. "Apoc was here helping with the repairs, and told her it wasn't ready. She was pushing him harder and harder to let her leave, but wouldn't say why. She just kept saying that she was going to lose herself. He didn't back down, and then she... she started laying waste to everyone. You arrived just in time. She would have killed us all."
"She had Linnet's face," Apoc groans from the ground. "Not... all of it, but enough. I knew something was wrong. I was hoping to stall her and send Lily to get one of you, but... things escalated too quickly." He's stable, but he's in a lot of pain. "It worked. Again, I'm sorry. Not a problem anymore. Isa, Bast, you figure this out from here." Linnet whirls up some more sugar sparkles. Isa surveys the scene. "We need panic alarms," is her conclusion. Bast looks over at Apoc. "Good work." He waves off Orrey's offer of healing, pointing to Apoc instead. "Bast...you didn't notice you were talking funny this whole time?" Linnet asks quietly.
"Sounded fine to me until you all started doing it back on deck." "I wonder why she called Bast the infection?" Orrey ponders as he undoes some of the agazzilb damage. "Ah. Yeah, you've been doing it off and on pretty much since we brought Cirri on board." Linnet's not looking at him; she's still working. "We were trying not to make a big deal of it, but Twelve above, it's good to hear you talking normally." Yves makes a few anxious little gestures in the direction of Apoc. Having no healing magic, he settles for digging a notebook out of his satchel and beginning work on designing the World's Greatest Panic Alarm System (Version 0.1). "I'd still like to give you a more thorough going-over once we've cleared out of here, though; that much lightning at once might have some lasting effects." Linnet looks Bast in the eye and rests one hand on her arm, the same arm he was clutching. Apoc just focuses on keeping as much of his blood inside his body as he can. Version 0.1 of that is to not move. "That's the truth! Lightning is no joke," Orrey says. Bast, by way of response, heaves himself upright from the crate he was leaning on and paces several times through the space where their passenger had been until shortly before, as if to check that there's nothing left. Not even a whisper on the wind. "This is like a bad drug trip," Yves mutters to himself, as he sketches out a theoretical connecting system for these alarms. "Like that one after..." He swallows, and works on the alarm system. Yes. Alarms. That's what it is. Alarms. Not alarmed, not alarming, just... systems. Nice logical alarm systems. He's going to focus on that for a while, now, thanks. Finally satisfied with the results of his inspection, Bast stops, running a faintly trembling hand through his hair. "Well. Let's hope that's over." Linnet looks unconvinced, but will let the subject drop until everyone stops bleeding and shaking. For now. And with that... .38 noisseS dnE
Under the guidance of Yna Mjrwin, in the shadow of her homeland, with the strength and conviction and respect and compassion and resolution of her friends, Linnet's winds have returned.
A journey that started in the aftermath of one of her darkest moments, nearly torn apart in a factory in the middle of Machanon, a life nearly snuffed out due to her habit of getting in over her head, an existence that nearly drained away due to her tendency to put others before herself to the point of self-destruction, a soul restored when her friends would no longer accept "I'm fine" as an answer.
Linnet is whole once again, and the Starfall's kitchen will never be the same.
Though the kitchen itself will have to wait, as the Starfall finds itself drifting along the lake bordering Sainé, with the officers and some of the tenured crew members enjoying the early evening sunset...
**
Celeste is trying out fishing, and has convinced Isa to take a stool to the edge of the deck with her, though she hasn't been able to figure out if Isa does or does not know what she's doing. When one keeps a straight face for their entire life, one keeps a certain mystique about them.
Rahel is a constant dervish of terrible singing and incredible dancing, just overjoyed to have Linnet back. Her voice gave out hours ago, but that doesn't stop her.
Shula is also overjoyed, far more restrained than she normally is, joining in the singing, trying to stay out of the dancing.
Jasper is jovial and chatty, full of booming laughs and boisterous back-slapping. This all seems centered on Bast for some reason.
Marina is nodding along by the door to the bridge, sitting in a chair balanced back on two legs — she was out here first, and the music that was playing earlier seems to have gone away, but the noise of the officers and their friends are more than filling the space. Bast leans on the railing by Celeste, between bouts of Jasper's attention. "If this isn't working, there's a faster way I can show uoy." "Oh, please do!" Celeste says, eyes wide with The Joy Of Learning. "No explosions," Isa says quickly. "Bast, no dynamite fishing, please. You have more important things to use those explosives for."
Linnet has been trying to change the subject away from herself with very limited success, but she's also been performing aerial stunts for everyone's amusement; these two goals are somewhat in conflict. Bast steps back from the railing with an exaggerated sigh, and whispers a "Maybe later" as he passes by Celeste on the way towards the bridge. Shula has occasionally added harmless flashes of fire up around Linnet, some very minor makeshift fireworks. (For a group that's not supposed to be here, they're not doing a very good job of concealing anything, but Peregrine seems to have no objections, and the crew as a whole are in such a chill mood that it's hard to say no to anything.) Orrey has gathered a small group of the crew to play some cards. Not your ordinary deck, but one based off of the Twelve and Alternan Politics that he has hand drawn and crafted. Linnet ruffles Orrey's notebook and his hair, but not his cards, with two different tiny breezes and spins above Hawk's head contentedly. "So, where's your next tour, brother? Off to break new ground, invent new forms of sneaking into places, write a new concept album?" Yves is, surprisingly, not on deck. Not even to try out the new card game. He's been absent for the last hour or two, and--oh, there he is now, slinking quietly out to join the party. Rather... damp. It is possible the zero-gravity-ready water feature is still not ready for all gravity variations, zero or otherwise. "Well, I'll be getting back together with the band," replies Peregrine, "so when you're heading into the Triad, drop me back off. We've got a tour heading down into Caerwyn next month, which is only partially a cover for some of the highly illegal-until-it's-not fun stuff we get up to. Then I think we're going to actually record some new stuff, got a place lined up in Saron with better acoustics now that we can afford it." Linnet sinks down and hugs him from behind. "Thank you again for dropping everything to come save me from myself. And know you're welcome back anytime. And, um, if you leave any sort of forwarding address, you might be getting some letters. You've got a few fans onboard." By the bridge, Bast wordlessly passes a flask to Marina.
Marina takes the handoff smoothly and immediately puts the flask to work. Isa nudges Celeste. "You've got a bite," she notes. "Oh shit!" Celeste says, gripping the rod with both hands. "Okay. I know what to do. Okay."
She braces her feet and starts to reel the fish in, carefully biding her time, studying the tension in the line, and definitely overthinking every aspect of this. Leaning back on the wall next to Marina, Bast surveys the deck - Starfall lazily drifting, the crew at ease, with nowhere to hurry and nothing to fight, just passing the time. This is...nice? "Maybe we should dunk this ship in the water more often, eh, Captain?" Marina asks after an enjoyable stretch of silence.
The fish Celeste is battling with certainly isn't one that should be worth all this effort, but Celeste hasn't found an activity that will defeat her yet, and fishing isn't going to be the first. But it's a very, very clumsy start. Bast looks down - well, mostly sideways - at her from where he's standing. "Tahw saw taht?" His glance lingers a little on the flask. Marina pauses, flask at the corner of her lips. "Captain?" she asks. "Uoy t'ndid knird eht elohw gniht ydaerla, did uoy? Ti skaens pu no uoy." He looks somewhat concerned. Marina stands up, keeping a close and careful eye on Bast. "Captain, I can't understand a word you're saying," she says, looking just as concerned. Isa looks over towards Bast, the hand that was supporting Celeste's rod falling away ignored. Linnet makes her excuses with some cheery whispers to her friends, encouraging them to carry on carousing, and floats over. "Voices down, everyone." Orrey starts attempting to write down Bast’s words in reverse letter order every time he talks. "When did this start? It was occasionally before, but what is this now?" Marina asks Linnet as she approaches. Bast's distinctly unamused gaze swings over to Linnet. "Era uoy dnurk oot? I t'nac ekam tuo yna fo taht." Linnet makes a universal gesture for "quiet the hell down." “Ti…it…skeins, uh, is that sneaks?” Orrey scribbles more and mumbles to himself. Isa blinks. "Sorry Captain, I couldn't make that out." “Are you drunk too?” Orrey says. Yves has not yet caught on to the current topic of conversation, despite his proximity. He's muttering something about fluid dynamics not respecting sensible laws of magic as he stares over the railing into the water. “Tsab, nac uoy dnatsrednu em?” Orrey asks his captain. Bast looks over at Isa, then Orrey, then back at Isa and shuts his eyes altogether. "Llew, kcuf em syawedis. S'ti em, t'nsi ti." He loosens his shirt and rubs at his forearms like trying to soothe a deep bruise.
His fingers stop for a moment, then pick up again with a purpose, as if searching for - following - something. "Yeah, it's you," Linnet confirms. "Which is why I'm trying to keep the volume down before everyone, uh, makes the same opening statement you just did." He suddenly pushes away from the wall, striding past Linnet and dodging around Orrey on his way belowdecks. “Each word running backwards on it’s own, but not changing the word order of the sentence. Very odd.” Orrey comments, dealing out the cards again. He's holding one arm tightly with another as he disappears from view. Linnet makes a conciliatory "carry on, I'll go see what's up" gesture and hurries after him. Yves looks up from the waters below the ship, and blinks to see Bast disappearing belowdecks. Followed by Linnet. "...okay, I missed that," he says. Below, Bast pauses for a moment, then keeps going down past the officers' quarters. Isa rises to her feet. "Alright," she says to the remaining deck dwellers. "We're not taking off yet but start making ready." Celeste has succeeded in snapping her line, and promises her revenge. Growing increasingly concerned as she loses sight of her captain, Linnet speeds down through the Starfall after Bast, dodging conversations left and right. Down. Down and aft. Bast is running by the time he reaches the cargo hold. The doors are partly open, which is against regulations -- either brace them fully open or close them entirely. He can get through; that's all that matters right now. One of them gets shouldered aside. There has been fighting in here.
Apoc is down, crumpled against the crates of bluespirit you liberated from Jozech, in severe pain, bleeding badly. His silver rapier lies on the ground next to him.
Lily is crouched in front of him, her own rapier up in a defensive position. She has been losing a fight.
Akil and Runa are hiding in the far corner, hands over their heads, not even wanting to peek around the corner of the crate hiding them from the commotion.
Juniper is unconscious behind them.
And in the center of the room...
The sylph standing with her back to the door is wearing a cropped blue jacket over a bright orange top, black jeans, and heavily-zippered ankle boots. Her hair is a whipping, growing braid of pink mixed with green. She holds a bag stuffed with clothes and supplies over her shoulder, and shards of bloodied ice circle her left hand.
She looks over her shoulder, Cirri’s eyes above Linnet’s nose, Linnet’s mouth with the curl of Cirri’s dubious expression. There is nothing dubious about the look in her eyes, though.
".evila moor siht evael lliw uoy fo enoN"
She turns, ready to fight. "Oh fuck right off, whoever you are." Still breathing heavily, Bast brings up his crossbow.
The captain's bellow of "HELP IN THE HOLD!" throws off his aim somewhat. It'll only take a moment to line it up again... Linnet skids to a stop outside the room - apparently you can still skid when you're not touching the ground. "Bast! Guys, didn't we just go through - Cirri?!? What the - shit. No time." She flings a few desperate stabilization heals at Apoc and Lily from the doorway, meets the eyes of Akil and Runa in a shared "we've got you" moment, and settles in behind Bast. Up on the deck, Isa looks towards the hatch Bast and Linnet disappeared into. "Fuck," she says, followed quickly by "Trouble!" and then wrapped up in a neat little bow of hauling ass below decks. "...I don't know who you are, but you have taken advantage of my kindhearted nature," Linnet begins to spin a blizzard around her own fists, "and I do not appreciate it." The ice around Cirri?'s fist begins to whirl in response, and in tandem, both circles rise up and wham right into the mutated sylph's shoulders. Fists of ice pummel her much as one could imagine Linnet would if Linnet had ever learned how to punch. "Leave my friends alone!" Tennil Neardi moves simultaneously with Linnet, though she whips her left arm up to throw a White Magic spell out around her, Tnevrev, and then lets loose a right-armed Agarif into her smudged mirror counterpart. She then follows that with a less graceful cast, a two-handed push of Agazzilb at Bast. "That is not leaving my friends alone!" Linnet drops behind Bast and tries not to panic. "We've got this...somehow..." Yves is booking it after Isa, because whatever the heck is going on, he should probably make sure that he's 1) there to help make sure it goes right, and 2) not too far away from the officer voted Best To Stand Behind During Battle. Orrey hears the commotion below and grabs his watch and knife. Knowing there's only one way to get there fast, he Hastes himself, purple clock aura nearly matching his hair color. Zipping past Yves and then Isa, he bursts into the room just as the fiery blasts dissipate, brandishing his knife. Bast, losing his hold on the crossbow as he's thrown one way and then another between two magic blasts, yanks a vial off his belt. With his throwing arm on fire, he doesn't so much throw as smash it on the floor in the general direction of Tennil.
The smoke that rises in a cloud around her is only slightly caustic. Not enough to eat through, say, skin without extended exposure. Hard on the eyes, though. Isa storms the hold, her preferred big stompy boots making big stompy boot noises on the diamond plate floor. She has exactly as much time as it takes her to reach Tennil to decide on her tactics...
...she decides to just haul off and deck her with an armored fist. Linnet decides to stay back and just panic-heal the Captain and not tell him it's a panic heal. Tennil moves confidently, staying on the offensive even after getting punched in the face by a tall angry lady. ".dluoc reve uoy fo rehtie naht efil retteb raf a dael lliw I" Another Tnevrev shields Tennil, and a Arazzilbrev swings in to catch both Linnet and Orrey in its path. There was an inkling of this coming, the sense of impending magical doom lingering in the back of Orrey's mind. He snaps out his hands in a sign some might recognize as a holy gesture of the Twelve just as the magic dies down, and fires a tornado of bright, jarring light, Addling her...except he DIDN'T predict the Vervent blocking his attempt, and the light fizzles out in a flash as it takes down her defenses.
"If at first you don't succeed..." Orrey says, grimacing as he repeats the spell once again.
Orrey Hastily advances after the spell, slashing his knife at Tennil.
A sharp, unexpected kiai and a hell of a slash and Orrey is panting and shocked at how well that went. Isa gives Orrey a look that starts with mild surprise, and ends with a proud nod. Yves runs into the smoky room as fast as he can sprint, and thus straight into a face full of the oddest-feeling magical ice he's experienced in, oh, at least a few days. Possibly even weeks. (It's been a very strange time since he got a train that once, really, so things like this are just part of his life now.) "What the--" Rather than finish that sentence with appropriate levels of profanity, or try to assess anything tactical, Yves figures out who's the current hostile entity in the room, and snaps his fingers in that direction for a hasty, yet pointy, burst of the sparkiest type of thunder he has on hand. Some of Tennil's confidence is flagging, but she's not going to give in. ",noitcefni ,eiD" she says to Bast, and then fires her own Agadnuht at the Captain. Bast reaches down to scoop up his crossbow, left hand already going for another vial - then the choice is taken from him by an arc of lightning that bends his spine backward like a bow. He falls over at Linnet's feet, arms spasming once, twice, and then still. Isa catches sight of Bast's fall, and the gloves come off. Not literally; the gauntlet stays on. But she draws it back into a defensive posture as her other hand brings forth her spear, snapping it forward viciously to slash and jab. Tennil grunts out a low "tihs" as she tries to defend herself, not faring anywhere near as well up close as she does slinging spells. Tennil Accelerates herself, unleashing a pair of Agazzilb spells, one on Linnet, one on the tall lady who won't stop punching and stabbing her. Linnet closes her eyes upon seeing Bast fall and drops to one knee beside him. "Everyone, could you please beat the fuck out of whatever that is while I see to Bast? Thank you." Surprisingly calm in the face of the shitstorm, she sets to work in a field of cool spice-scented blue light. Every time Tennil fires off a spell, Orrey, seemingly without control over his actions, fires another Addling ball of light at her.
Orrey shakes off the spell surge and readies another one, opening a circular portal to...somewhere ..that glows with swirling green and purple light. It sucks her in, but only disrupts her being rather than throwing her out of existence on this plane.
Then Orrey reaches for his gun, not messing around anymore with the knife.
A blast of golden light explodes out of the end of the Ultimate Armageddon, catching Tennil a glancing blow off of her side, and part of the shot ricochets back and impacts Orrey, who shrugs off the pain and maintains his aim. "Got it, Linnet," Yves says, not so much calm as trying to concentrate on throwing lightning at whatever the heck is going on and whoever the heck just dropped the captain that hard. Which is to say, he slides and flicks lightning through the air, and with a churn of mana, somehow does it... even more so.
Much more so.
It is a lot of lightning. With accompanying thunder. In a room like this, it's almost deafening, two rollicking crescendos of blue-white bolts sending out their clashing echoes in a way that would do a multi-cannon salute proud.
And every last bit of it is concentrated on one single point: the Whatever That Is requested as a target by Linnet, who Yves would really like to keep happy right now, on both general reasons of crew solidarity and specific ones of this being the wrong day to mess with his friend. Bast jerks back to life with a gasp, almost headbutting Linnet in the face as she is working on healing him. "Hello to you too." Linnet hugs him briefly, then sets about distributing Cura spells among everyone on the floor. "Yves, Isa, leaving you in charge of that thing."
"...I'll apologize later for bringing her onto our ship, but that is not the Cirri I met." Tennil Neardi is on her side in the center of the cargo hold, broken and defeated.
As they watch, she... disintegrates.
Slowly, painlessly. "-oh. That's all over, then?" Bast raises his head in a more controlled fashion, then slowly peels the rest of the way off the floor. "Orrey, when was the last time someone told you you're pretty badass?" Linnet asks offhandedly. "Because we need to tell you that more often." Yves watches the disintegration with great interest and mild horror. "...that's new." Orrey blushes a bit at the compliment. "Just doing my part is all." "I mean, I hope it's new and hasn't been happening regularly without me noticing, because that's... uh..." Yves swallows his words. ",evil ot teg uoY .niw uoY" she tells Linnet. Having mostly whirled herself out and made sure nobody's going to bleed out in the hold, Linnet kneels by what she thought was Cirri.
"I'm sorry. You're not really her. I don't know what you are." "...I should... maybe... I mean, that's not a side effect of fixing things." Yves drops his voice on that last part, to aim toward Isa, not sure of who else to ask an awkward question like that. "It's probably not, right? ....probably?" "I hoped we could be friends; I hoped I could figure out a way you could live happily and join our crew and have adventures and a new life with us. But you're not Cirri, and that factory did something awful to you, and whatever I did to your crystal didn't really bring you back," Linnet concludes. ".yawyna gniyd m'I tuB .eid ot evila t'nsaw I tub ,gniyd m'I .uoy ro reh t'nsaw I .reh t'nsaw I .irriC dellik tnedicca ehT .evila saw reven I" She hangs her head, as her braid breaks apart into flickering motes of pink and green. "I'm sorry it had to end like this." ".uoy evol yeht hcum woh htiW .t'ndid I dalg m'I kniht I tuB .niaga yrt dluow I ,dluoc I fI .uoy dellik evah dluow I" Linnet spins a tiny whirlwind in the trail of Cirri's dissolving motes, to carry them far afield. ".uoy dekil evah dluow ehs kniht I .Cirri tem evah dluoc uoy hsiw I .Linnet ,eybdooG" The names are said properly, the only clear words since the fight started.
The little whirlwind disperses what was once Irric Neardi. Linnet checks the floor for anything left - particularly that stupid crystal. Nothing remains. By the end, Yves has mild interest and great horror in his view of the process. "Does anyone have any idea what happened there?" Isa asks. Linnet whispers a quick prayer, then stands and surveys the room. "Well, that was unpleasant. I owe you all an apology for bringing on a new crew member without any sort of proper vetting, but...yeah, can't say I had any idea that was going to happen."
"Apoc, Lily? What the hell broke all this out?" Juniper is still unconscious, but stably so. Apoc is at least not getting any more blood on anyone else's costume, at this point.
"Bast, you can stand, right? I'm sorry, that wasn't my best work, but at least you're awake."
"...and coherent." Orrey helps out the healing process with a few Rejuvenations to reverse the magical damage. Yves, finally paying attention to things other than the immediate hostile in the area, sees the rest of the damage under the dissipated grenade smoke. "...oh infinity and rot, really?" Bast, with one hand on a nearby crate, waves off Linnet's apologies. "Worked well enough from where I'm standing." Lily has not put her sword down, and will not for at least the next three days. "Cirri came in here to steal Meteor," she says stiffly. "Apoc was here helping with the repairs, and told her it wasn't ready. She was pushing him harder and harder to let her leave, but wouldn't say why. She just kept saying that she was going to lose herself. He didn't back down, and then she... she started laying waste to everyone. You arrived just in time. She would have killed us all."
"She had Linnet's face," Apoc groans from the ground. "Not... all of it, but enough. I knew something was wrong. I was hoping to stall her and send Lily to get one of you, but... things escalated too quickly." He's stable, but he's in a lot of pain. "It worked. Again, I'm sorry. Not a problem anymore. Isa, Bast, you figure this out from here." Linnet whirls up some more sugar sparkles. Isa surveys the scene. "We need panic alarms," is her conclusion. Bast looks over at Apoc. "Good work." He waves off Orrey's offer of healing, pointing to Apoc instead. "Bast...you didn't notice you were talking funny this whole time?" Linnet asks quietly.
"Sounded fine to me until you all started doing it back on deck." "I wonder why she called Bast the infection?" Orrey ponders as he undoes some of the agazzilb damage. "Ah. Yeah, you've been doing it off and on pretty much since we brought Cirri on board." Linnet's not looking at him; she's still working. "We were trying not to make a big deal of it, but Twelve above, it's good to hear you talking normally." Yves makes a few anxious little gestures in the direction of Apoc. Having no healing magic, he settles for digging a notebook out of his satchel and beginning work on designing the World's Greatest Panic Alarm System (Version 0.1). "I'd still like to give you a more thorough going-over once we've cleared out of here, though; that much lightning at once might have some lasting effects." Linnet looks Bast in the eye and rests one hand on her arm, the same arm he was clutching. Apoc just focuses on keeping as much of his blood inside his body as he can. Version 0.1 of that is to not move. "That's the truth! Lightning is no joke," Orrey says. Bast, by way of response, heaves himself upright from the crate he was leaning on and paces several times through the space where their passenger had been until shortly before, as if to check that there's nothing left. Not even a whisper on the wind. "This is like a bad drug trip," Yves mutters to himself, as he sketches out a theoretical connecting system for these alarms. "Like that one after..." He swallows, and works on the alarm system. Yes. Alarms. That's what it is. Alarms. Not alarmed, not alarming, just... systems. Nice logical alarm systems. He's going to focus on that for a while, now, thanks. Finally satisfied with the results of his inspection, Bast stops, running a faintly trembling hand through his hair. "Well. Let's hope that's over." Linnet looks unconvinced, but will let the subject drop until everyone stops bleeding and shaking. For now. And with that... .38 noisseS dnE
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