Ritsu heard the young woman’s voice echo behind him, and had he not been paralyzed with fear he would have likely encouraged her not to waste her cry of concern on his unimportant self. It took a moment for him to process the meaning of her words, but as soon as he did, his eyes widened, and he attempted to lean himself up and over the railing, ready to push back to the solid floor on the other side, his terrified gaze never leaving the figure in front of him.
The pause his unremarkable brain had required had come with a cost, however, and by the time he went to thrust his hands and feet against the barrier and propel himself over, he found that they met with nothing but air. The fact that this being could lift him with such ease confirmed that he was, indeed, not human…one of those terrifying things that only came out at night, that Kagura always talked about. Perhaps this was his punishment for not considering the mess his lowly body would have made on the floor below, an aspect he had so selfishly forgotten to consider.
“I--”
He barely had time to begin a painfully stuttered apology before he was thrown through the air, another effeminate shriek leaving him - he shielded his face with his arms, thusly missing the fact that his feet seemed to pass right through the solid material of the railing. His pretty face flinched into a wince as he anticipated the impact, and he could only hope his clumsy body wouldn’t cause this kind individual any injury. And that it wouldn’t somehow cause an unfortunate transformation - the only thing that would make him more useless in this situation would be if he was suddenly a skittering little monkey.
Ilia barely had time to register that the woman was not moving normally, and a second later she came crashing down upon the scientist. Her arms had moved to block, a natural response from her training, and had barely moved up to shield her when the woman slammed into her. Her legs, still moving at a run, weren't stable enough to hold her steady and they both crumbled to the ground.
Air knocked out of her from the double impact, Ilia struggled to gain a breath from under the other woman. Strange, she was heavier than Ilia would have given her credit for. But she couldn't stay down on the floor. That blue thing was still up there and she didn't want to chance it would leave them alone after just this. Ilia tried to push herself to her feet, shoving the other woman none-too-gently in the process.
"We need to move!" Her voice rasped, breathless. She had to get up and fight!
He grinned slightly, finding the ensuing chaos of Ritsu crashing into Ilia amusing. Or as amusing as his sensors told him it was. Unwritten disorder, all caused by him. The unnamed catalyst of his domain--now and always.
Ilia was right to suggest that she and Ritsu move as quickly as possible, because his switches were flipping so rapidly from the excitement he could only see the option of continuing to dissuade the subjects from the area. By force.
Flying through the railing, he reached behind his back. When his hands came back around to his front, he was holding his three-bladed fangs--and bearing them down on Ilia and Ritsu as he zipped towards them, his feet never touching the ground or moving.
Upon impact, Ritsu felt a flicker of gratitude at the fact that the young woman had raised her arms to block, instead of trying to do something like catch him. Of course, the feeling was quickly replaced by a rush of guilt as he realized that he had hit her, that he hadn’t been hoping or trying to keep himself from hitting her, that his lowly form had knocked her off her feet and was, after a clumsy tumble to the ground, now strewn on top of her.
The rough shove, which was far gentler than his burdensome self deserved, was enough to send him scrambling to his feet, the action panicked and positively simian-looking. His wide, amber eyes shimmered with new tears as he turned to her, pathetically, his voice becoming higher and higher with fear. “I-I’m sorry! I-...I mean, yes! Of course!”
The young lady seemed to know what she was doing far better than he, and helpless and useless as he was in this situation, he was more than happy to follow any instructions she would give him - he only hoped he wasn’t being too presumptuous in assuming that she had meant for them to move together. Still, she had been showing concern for him before the specter appeared and, just now, had said “we,” referring to the both of them - Ritsu would do his best to make sure she wouldn’t regret having used that particular pronoun.
Of course, the moment he looked back towards the mysterious blue apparition, it shot towards them - his mind took in every terrifying aspect of that split second, as though the event was occurring in slow motion. The thing passed through a railing that certainly had been sturdy and existent enough to support all of his own weight…even further, it continued to float above the floor, and was holding what he could only assume were weapons, and very intimidating ones, at that.
He cast a frantic glance to the right, then the left, and promptly threw himself in whichever direction followed the young woman he’d landed on, somehow managing not to trip over his own clumsy feet as he fled - quite an accomplishment, considering his eyes had clenched shut again the moment he started running.
By the time Ilia finally managed to get to her feet, the attacker, that rag doll monster, had pulled out a pair of wicked, three-bladed swords. Damn it, of all the monsters to be pitted against it would be one with an actual weapon! She could only hope to dodge a normal sword half the time, but against something with such a large reach...
"Shit!" The expletive left her mouth in a gasp and she found herself turning tail just like the other woman. She staggered after her, glad for the muscle strength and adrenaline that kept her injury from acting up. At least that cut was over a day old now, almost healed. But could she keep away from that thing like this? Could she protect the other woman?
Had stepping forward to save her tonight been the right thing? That hadn't been about validation as far as Ilia could tell. And now it was definitely more--it was about survival. Sometimes running from an unbalanced battle was the best strategy. If she and the woman could just keep ahead of it... and if not, she would have to turn and fight.
Taking a moment to watch Ilia and Ritsu scramble to run, his switches flipped at an epileptic pace. It was true that his program objective was to deter non-aggressors back to their origin point without ceasing function... but the damaged nature of him as an entity didn't always make his objective stable.
Millions of switches rouletted in that moment he let Ilia and Ritsu run. And then, leaving dozens of afterimages, he slid backwards and through Ilia and Ritsu, re-solidifying in front of them, grinning.
His program now authorized him to terrorize them. He brought his blades forward in a deadly cross-swipe, aiming for the leader of the escape: Ritsu.
After running several terrified paces, Ritsu managed to eek his eyes open and glance over his shoulder - the young woman was following closely, her movements far more experienced than any he had made since beginning his messy dash towards safety. This cowardly individual hadn’t meant to appear to be leaving her to face the monster alone, nor had he meant to imply he was an ideal leader by being the first to sprint away…his panicky instincts had simply taken over the moment she had told him to move, and he had since covered more ground than he had ever imagined possible for someone as unremarkable as himself.
Still, he knew his bold actions warranted an apology - one that would come as soon as he was sure they had both survived...even this lowly Ritsu couldn’t imagine having enough breath or coherency of thought to manage one until then.
He turned his tear-stained face forward once more, a gasped sort of shriek leaving his lungs as he saw their pursuer suddenly standing before them, readying those weapons for a very painful-looking strike. The young Sohma tried to desperately to skitter to a halt, the motion causing him to lose his balance and footing almost instantly, as grace had never been a quality he'd possessed.
The young man fell with a hard thump, flat on his back just moments after the blades sliced the air, missing his flesh by inches.
Apologies were the last thing on Ilia's mind as they raced towards the nearest exit. Escape and survival came first. Her military training was enough to keep her moving, but she wanted to make sure the other woman got free too. And just when she thought they might not have to worry about their pursuer, he was suddenly in front of them. And his blades were aimed right at the other woman!
No choice. She had to fight. Without a weapon but her own fists, not even something to cover them, Ilia doubted her prospects of winning would be high but what else could she do? She rushed forward, her heart picking up even faster when she saw the other woman fall--was this her chance?
Throwing caution to the wind, Ilia jumped. She cleared the fallen body of the woman and landed right in front of their assailant. At point blank range she would be vulnerable to those swords but she fought melee style on Roak against enemies with weapons before. She would fight through! She would win! She kept her mantra going and aimed a barrage of punches at the blue monster. She would destroy it! She could not lose! Over and over, punch after punch she kept it up, ignoring the fear and focusing on her attack.
She couldn't lose. She couldn't die here. Not until she saw her captain again.
Ritsu heard the young woman’s voice echo behind him, and had he not been paralyzed with fear he would have likely encouraged her not to waste her cry of concern on his unimportant self. It took a moment for him to process the meaning of her words, but as soon as he did, his eyes widened, and he attempted to lean himself up and over the railing, ready to push back to the solid floor on the other side, his terrified gaze never leaving the figure in front of him.
The pause his unremarkable brain had required had come with a cost, however, and by the time he went to thrust his hands and feet against the barrier and propel himself over, he found that they met with nothing but air. The fact that this being could lift him with such ease confirmed that he was, indeed, not human…one of those terrifying things that only came out at night, that Kagura always talked about. Perhaps this was his punishment for not considering the mess his lowly body would have made on the floor below, an aspect he had so selfishly forgotten to consider.
“I--”
He barely had time to begin a painfully stuttered apology before he was thrown through the air, another effeminate shriek leaving him - he shielded his face with his arms, thusly missing the fact that his feet seemed to pass right through the solid material of the railing. His pretty face flinched into a wince as he anticipated the impact, and he could only hope his clumsy body wouldn’t cause this kind individual any injury. And that it wouldn’t somehow cause an unfortunate transformation - the only thing that would make him more useless in this situation would be if he was suddenly a skittering little monkey.
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Air knocked out of her from the double impact, Ilia struggled to gain a breath from under the other woman. Strange, she was heavier than Ilia would have given her credit for. But she couldn't stay down on the floor. That blue thing was still up there and she didn't want to chance it would leave them alone after just this. Ilia tried to push herself to her feet, shoving the other woman none-too-gently in the process.
"We need to move!" Her voice rasped, breathless. She had to get up and fight!
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Ilia was right to suggest that she and Ritsu move as quickly as possible, because his switches were flipping so rapidly from the excitement he could only see the option of continuing to dissuade the subjects from the area. By force.
Flying through the railing, he reached behind his back. When his hands came back around to his front, he was holding his three-bladed fangs--and bearing them down on Ilia and Ritsu as he zipped towards them, his feet never touching the ground or moving.
Reply
The rough shove, which was far gentler than his burdensome self deserved, was enough to send him scrambling to his feet, the action panicked and positively simian-looking. His wide, amber eyes shimmered with new tears as he turned to her, pathetically, his voice becoming higher and higher with fear. “I-I’m sorry! I-...I mean, yes! Of course!”
The young lady seemed to know what she was doing far better than he, and helpless and useless as he was in this situation, he was more than happy to follow any instructions she would give him - he only hoped he wasn’t being too presumptuous in assuming that she had meant for them to move together. Still, she had been showing concern for him before the specter appeared and, just now, had said “we,” referring to the both of them - Ritsu would do his best to make sure she wouldn’t regret having used that particular pronoun.
Of course, the moment he looked back towards the mysterious blue apparition, it shot towards them - his mind took in every terrifying aspect of that split second, as though the event was occurring in slow motion. The thing passed through a railing that certainly had been sturdy and existent enough to support all of his own weight…even further, it continued to float above the floor, and was holding what he could only assume were weapons, and very intimidating ones, at that.
He cast a frantic glance to the right, then the left, and promptly threw himself in whichever direction followed the young woman he’d landed on, somehow managing not to trip over his own clumsy feet as he fled - quite an accomplishment, considering his eyes had clenched shut again the moment he started running.
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"Shit!" The expletive left her mouth in a gasp and she found herself turning tail just like the other woman. She staggered after her, glad for the muscle strength and adrenaline that kept her injury from acting up. At least that cut was over a day old now, almost healed. But could she keep away from that thing like this? Could she protect the other woman?
Had stepping forward to save her tonight been the right thing? That hadn't been about validation as far as Ilia could tell. And now it was definitely more--it was about survival. Sometimes running from an unbalanced battle was the best strategy. If she and the woman could just keep ahead of it... and if not, she would have to turn and fight.
Reply
They were zoning, trying to shake him off, trying to exit his domain before he could quarantine them.
Ch4nc3 0f ^etu[n to 0, 0: ... 83% ... "/|6% ... 1*% ... 0
Taking a moment to watch Ilia and Ritsu scramble to run, his switches flipped at an epileptic pace. It was true that his program objective was to deter non-aggressors back to their origin point without ceasing function... but the damaged nature of him as an entity didn't always make his objective stable.
Millions of switches rouletted in that moment he let Ilia and Ritsu run. And then, leaving dozens of afterimages, he slid backwards and through Ilia and Ritsu, re-solidifying in front of them, grinning.
His program now authorized him to terrorize them. He brought his blades forward in a deadly cross-swipe, aiming for the leader of the escape: Ritsu.
Reply
Still, he knew his bold actions warranted an apology - one that would come as soon as he was sure they had both survived...even this lowly Ritsu couldn’t imagine having enough breath or coherency of thought to manage one until then.
He turned his tear-stained face forward once more, a gasped sort of shriek leaving his lungs as he saw their pursuer suddenly standing before them, readying those weapons for a very painful-looking strike. The young Sohma tried to desperately to skitter to a halt, the motion causing him to lose his balance and footing almost instantly, as grace had never been a quality he'd possessed.
The young man fell with a hard thump, flat on his back just moments after the blades sliced the air, missing his flesh by inches.
Reply
No choice. She had to fight. Without a weapon but her own fists, not even something to cover them, Ilia doubted her prospects of winning would be high but what else could she do? She rushed forward, her heart picking up even faster when she saw the other woman fall--was this her chance?
Throwing caution to the wind, Ilia jumped. She cleared the fallen body of the woman and landed right in front of their assailant. At point blank range she would be vulnerable to those swords but she fought melee style on Roak against enemies with weapons before. She would fight through! She would win! She kept her mantra going and aimed a barrage of punches at the blue monster. She would destroy it! She could not lose! Over and over, punch after punch she kept it up, ignoring the fear and focusing on her attack.
She couldn't lose. She couldn't die here. Not until she saw her captain again.
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