(Untitled)

Feb 22, 2012 16:48

In the beginning, it was a nice day.

This is a word which here means 'pleasing', 'agreeable', or 'delightful', so it may come as a surprise to you, dear reader, to hear the day described as such, given the situation in Milliways these past two weeks. But then, 'nice' is such a relative term, don't you agree? And certainly it would be difficult for ( Read more... )

agent k, jake lonergan, hellboy, kanaya maryam, flemeth, annabeth chase, adrian shephard, logan, katya, ben grimm, waco kid, cyborg, teja, han solo, simon tam, pleakley, sallie reynolds, wonder woman, kreyu, olivia dunham, doc scurlock, aziraphael, artemis, jack harkness, yrael, will scarlett, crowley, mal reynolds, unicron, nick sayre, felix of vale, voodoo, val von doom, apollo (percy jackson), atton rand, leonard 'bones' mccoy, puss in boots, nepeta leijon, charlie mcgee, enzo matrix, x-23, ava wilson, thalia grace, raylan givens, noble six, david xanatos, borgel, gordon freeman, jack bauer, the doctor, angel (buffy), glorfindel, sariel rager, michaelangelo, claudia donovan, cal chandler, michael the archangel

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-04 HRS howarewefortime February 23 2012, 04:11:52 UTC
The fighting comes in waves. Now a brief skirmish, ugly and fast, barely spreading beyond the edges of the baseball diamond; now a wall of ghouls and goblins and things with teeth come to feast on the end of the world, advancing swift and deep and so relentlessly that it seems as though Milliways' ragged defenders will never push them back.

And yet they do, time and again, churning the hard frost to mud beneath their feet, and staining the shallow scrims of snow as red as the sky above.

One place, though, remains untouched: a patch of land by the lake, neither so large nor so small as to make a difference, but remarkable only because of the two silver hemispheres still sitting there, quietly humming their skin-crawling hummmmmmmmmmmmmm.

It's louder now, though.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Rising a little in pitch and volume, in fact, every time an arc of lightning crackles over the silvery surface, grounding itself in the earth or spitting away into nothing.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

And if you couldn't smell it before, you certainly can now; an acrid, cloying smell, like ozone and rotting meat and wrongness, crawling down your nose and clinging to the back of your throat like a disease.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

That's the smell of Free Magic.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

There's no time to breathe it in, now.

The monsters are coming again.

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Re: -04 HRS will_scarlett February 23 2012, 04:15:08 UTC
The sound and feeling makes Will think of crucio curses and trump cards and he shivers before slicing in half a monster.

Everything just got far worse.

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Re: -04 HRS katyafeline February 23 2012, 07:25:22 UTC
Yes. Yes it has. And Katya would apologize, profusely, for any momentary feeling of depression.

If she was still capable of thinking in terms of apologies, anyway.

Instead there's an Other out there, dancing on the edge of oblivion, swimming through and around the shadows, dragging creatures into the darkness behind the world with talons and hands and magic and leaving... bits, scattered over the battlefield. One creature that she takes is the one that was about to take a swipe at Will's head.

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Re: -04 HRS will_scarlett February 23 2012, 07:32:24 UTC
When the creature attacking him disappears, Will first stabs the one coming towards his front and realizes he can't see who saved him.

He says thank you to the air as he keeps fighting, he'll have to rest soon or get back to where the healers are as he can't keep this up.

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 23 2012, 04:18:12 UTC
"Ah," says an old, old woman, lifting her head to breathe in that smell.

"It's just like fair-day in a plague year. Or maybe a Blight."

Probably a Blight, really. But it's not as if Flemeth has not weathered several of those before.

And there's a great deal of fun to be had with darkspawn. Or whatever these creatures are.

Plus there's the added benefit of watching all of this magnificent chaos!

It fair warms an old woman's bones, it does.

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 23 2012, 15:10:46 UTC
"...that's a real smell?" says Shephard through his gas mask. "Shit, I thought I was havin' another flashback."

You don't forget what you smell the day you deliberately let something that eats humans swallow you so that you can kill it from the inside.

"What the ass is goin' on?"

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 24 2012, 01:28:25 UTC
"As real as anything that goes through the mind when a body sees the end at hand, yes."

Flemeth's answer is probably unwarrantedly sprightly, but she makes a habit of that.

Even here.

"Without a body is an entirely different story! Though it would make it easier to live next to a swamp. Hmm."

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 24 2012, 01:32:50 UTC
"Aw, swamps ain't that bad," says Shephard automatically. He might be a mountain boy but he tends to feel most wild places ought to have their reputations defended, at least somewhat. "Beats that stench any day of the week."

The eyeball critter at his side hoists herself up on one foot to have a better look around. Her sense of smell isn't worth mentioning, so she has no idea she ought to be disturbed.

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 24 2012, 01:46:57 UTC
"I have a daughter," Flemeth observes dryly. "And our home was, until very recently, in the very middle of a swamp."

She never heard the end of it.

"As for the stench, they do say what can't be fought must be borne."

Her smile is quick and predatory, flashing teeth.

"Tell me, are you in the habit of bearing such as this?"

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 24 2012, 01:50:23 UTC
"I hunt dinner where it lives, ma'am," says Shephard, shrugging. "And if I ain't huntin' shit like this, I'm makin' sure it don't hunt the folks around me. Reckon that's a yes, either way."

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 24 2012, 02:23:52 UTC
"The best kind of hunting, where both sides are equally capable!"

For a given value of capable, likely, but that is often the way of it.

"Or almost equally capable. One can't have everything, after all."

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 24 2012, 02:26:33 UTC
"I'll take what I can git," says Shephard. "A reasonable fightin' chance is more than enough."

He cracks a crooked grin and looks around for something in need of hurting.

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 24 2012, 02:39:49 UTC
Flemeth taps one armored glove against her lips, golden eyes gone faraway, if no less bright.

Her smile then is a terrifying thing, full of teeth.

"Would you object to a more than fighting chance?"

A woman only gets so many opportunities to participate in an event like this, after all.

Particularly without affecting the strands of so many other delicately-laid plans.

Perhaps the time is right to indulge.

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 24 2012, 02:45:01 UTC
He's not going to forget that anytime soon. Oh, no. Still...

"I'm willin' to cheat if you are, ma'am."

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Re: -04 HRS lifeisacatch February 24 2012, 02:51:16 UTC
"Oh, I wouldn't call it cheating. Merely taking advantage of some of my natural gifts!"

Her laugh rumbles deep in her chest, even as --

Well.

Even as Flemeth starts moving just far enough away to make her transformation into a dragon complete.

Ah.

It really has been some time.

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Re: -04 HRS remindmeof_me February 24 2012, 02:52:54 UTC
Blink.

Blink.

"Shit, ma'am, you know Kreyu by any chance?"

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