Despair's Wings - Creeping Problems

Haaaah.... My poor characters.
Small warning that I always do: there is swearing and that's... about it. For whoever reads this and cares.

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Deanna paced across the back of the garden, thoughts darting between the various things that'd been going on. A strained, stress-filled sigh escaped her. One thing at a time. Find the girl first and make sure Bastion doesn't get killed by her... Someone better not make the Tuesday joke...

She paused her pacing and took a deep breath. The thing scratching at the edges of her mind and giving her a headache didn't help her stress levels any. Especially not since it was suspected to be Mot's doing, or related to that nightmarish death-god.

Deanna pulled her phone out to check the time. Still early morning... admittedly she hadn't slept yet. Too much nervous energy for her to want to try.

I should sleep but... Has Psy made any progress in searching? Maybe I can manage a quick scan starting on the other side of the city...

An uncomfortable expression crossed Deanna's face. The far side of the city from her Praetorian counterpart's starting point was near Dark Astoria, where Mot was supposed to be contained. Talos Island wasn't usually too bad to be in though, for being next door to it.

Deanna took another deep breath and carefully released it, tossing her mind out toward where she knew Psy was last. Her dimensional counterpart hadn't moved far and was easy enough to locate. She gave a gentle psychic 'ping' before sending a proper thought across the gap, -Anything? Was thinking of trying to make a quick scan starting in Talos before trying to sleep.-

Psy's response was quick and surprisingly clear for how spread out her attention was, -Bits and pieces but nothing I can make use of for tracking. And, uh, sure? But be careful, whatever's giving you a headache is starting to give me one I think...-

-I'll... yeah. I'll be careful. I'll quit being a distraction now.-

There was a wordlessly worried thought from Psy before Deanna pulled back to her body. Time to be stupid...

She steadied her breathing and closed her eyes, focusing on a memory of the isles north of Talos. A few moments passed and the air around her warped very slightly before she disappeared from the garden.

And reappeared on one of the isles she'd been focusing on. Immediately she could feel her headache start to slowly worsen and brought her mental defenses up fully. Attention falling on a handful of Circle of Thorns mages that were eyeballing her from whatever ritual they had been doing nearby.

Deanna tilted her head slightly and returned the looks with a glare of her own under her visor. One hand moving to rest on one of the pistols sitting on her belt. Her tone carrying a low growl.

"Not here for you, but don't make me shoot you or rip your minds apart."

The mages heeded the threat and backed away. Any other day and she would've fought them but...

Meh... might deal with them when I'm done here. These ones aren't usually much of a problem for me to fight.

Deanna proceeded to start ignoring the mages and moved to an emptier part of the small island she'd landed on. Settling on the grass and starting to steady her mind as much as she could. It took longer than it should have before she cast her focus out to the south.

Unfortunately, she couldn't find the energy to keep her focus on a scan for very long. Even for something like fresh memories or thoughts in a relatively small area.

A sigh escaped Deanna and she lowered her head as her attention returned to her body. The mystery headache wasn't helping.

Mnh... I shouldn't have tried to do that... wait.

She squinted at nothing in particular for a moment before fishing Hawthorn's amulet from under her suit. Shifting her gaze to the rune on one side of the coin-sized piece of deep, amber-brown wood. Her gaze drifted to the east for a moment, then back to the amulet, taking another deep breath.

You're why my nerves go all on-end when I try tracking what's giving me a headache, aren't you? ... I'm gonna regret this in a moment.

Deanna carefully removed the loop of silver thread that let it hang around her neck. Her focus going to the faint presence she could feel with the headache. She knew that feeling. Her instincts told her not to, to turn away, anywhere but the nightmare she could feel tugging at her mind...

Deanna's focus snapped back to her body, mental defenses going up again. A shiver running through her as she quickly looped the amulet back around her neck... and promptly felt the rune bite her the moment it settled against her chest.

I know, that was stupid. Sorry.

Then Deanna felt something like claws scraping ineffectively against her mental defenses. Faint, but familiar whispers following the feeling of something struggling to grip her mind.

She gathered up some of the energy she had left and focused it behind her defenses.

A flicker of the barrier. That was the only warning the other presence had before Deanna's psychic lance escaped the shield. The awful shriek it prompted sounded like a cross of avian and human told her she'd hit her target.

With the irritation in a confused panic from the blow its efforts to guard its presence were dispersed. Deanna could get a better feel for who it was that'd been giving her and Psy a headache before it retreated.

It was warped from what it used to be... but it was unnervingly like hers.

Shit. I need to get home before she recovers and latches on again.

Deanna shifted into a crouch, this time focusing and using the Light to pull herself back to the garden with a muffled pop. Her mental defenses eased up the moment she was on safe grounds, but the headache wouldn't be leaving for a while.

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For those who read this that aren't familiar with the group's shenanigans the 'Tuesday joke' is from earlier on... Bastion kept almost dying and it was usually on a Tuesday, which is also the day of the week I wrote this on. >:p
Characters: Silent Eyes (PoV Deanna), Psy-Shot (Her Praetorian counterpart), Reticent Feather (Also an alt-dimension Deanna from elsewhere)