Nightshift 49: 2nd Floor Staff Lounge

[guardiancomplex]

( From here.Touya stepped through the door and stopped. He'd been in quite a few closets in his time of various kinds, and this was not a closet. Not unless Landel started storing couches and paintings of puppies in his closets. Did he take a wrong turn

Comments

[per_ardua]

[[From here.]]

"Well... there might be something here," Raine said, looking around. Even if they found any secret passages, they clearly couldn't use them tonight. Still, the long row of cabinets was worth investigating.

And for many reasons, not just potential weapons. She hadn't even reached for the nearest cabinet before she got distracted by the coffee maker on the counter. She hadn't had any in a long time, and getting this little sleep, she could use it. The scent of the coffee was different than she was used to, but it might be worth taking the little appliance with them for a multitude of reasons. If it had a heating element, they could use it to boil water...

Raine opened the cabinet immediately above the coffee maker and started searching for actual coffee. If they were going to be stuck here, they should at least have some of the comforts from home.

[per_ardua]

Raine raised her eyebrows slightly at Yukari; was that deliberate confirmation of what she'd suspected? It wasn't as if she was actually going to say anything either way...

Before she could give it much thought, though, they suddenly had company. Raine blocked the spider's attack with her broom as she jumped backwards, bracing herself for another strike. This thing looked especially lethal and they couldn't leave... the room suddenly felt very, very small.

[mizuhomaiden]

A glare was the response to the insinuation and teasing from the youkai, but that never came out when the silken glove brushed against Sheena's cheek. Her eyes fell half-closed and she pressed her fingertips into her arm since she didn't have anything to actually hold onto. That was not fair. So not fair. Willpower... Sheena had it. She needed to remember that.

Thankfully, in a bizarre way, the spider dropped into their midst and the ninja's combat reflexes saved her from saying something potentially embarrassing, incriminating, or potentially romantic. Eyes snapping open, Sheena grabbed the youkai's wrist and pulled Yukari out of the way of what she assumed was an attack at them.

But no, it was Raine it went after. Thank Martel, the half-elf was combat trained. Even with a broom.

"Raine! Get out of the way! I can handle this!"

[mind_the_sukima]

Ah, just like this place to have just the timing to ruin her fun. Well, this could be fun in its own way.

Barely a moment after Yukari noticed the spider, Sheena was pulling her out of the way. By the time the youkai spun about to face the menace, she had her parasol out - for defense mostly, as it looked unlikely she could pierce the creature's chitinous shell.

Backing away to give Sheena room to fight, Yukari glanced around the room, looking for what she could use. The drawers and cabinets she'd gotten to were still open and still full of stuff...

All it took was one quick gap to send a drawer's worth of office supplies hailing on top of the spider's head - hardly harmful, but hopefully a useful distraction.

[damned_monsters]

The office supplies didn't seem to do much damage to the monstrous spider; instead it simply seemed to make it angrier, and it surged forward to lunge at Raine, attempting catch a hold of the girl in its huge jaws.

[per_ardua]

[[Come to think of it, my bad; Raine's broom broke quite a while ago and her weapon is a closet rod now... whoops!]]

Raine backed away as fast as she could without tripping, but not daring to look behind her; she held her makeshift staff at an angle in front of her, hoping to make it that much harder for the giant spider to get at her.

Her mind was whirling, trying to think of a way out of this, but she was coming up blank so far; it wasn't even likely that they would be able to hide anywhere. Sheena, whatever you wanted to show me, it had better be a new combat technique.

[mizuhomaiden]

Lucky for Raine, what Sheena had wanted to show her was precisely what the half-elf wanted at the time. Normally, she didn't like calling upon her pacts so soon in a fight - she would not be worthy of being a summoner if she called for help any time there was combat - but this wasn't just to deal with the spider, but to verify the pact was more than just a feeling she and Yukari had

[mind_the_sukima]

Unfortunately, while the junk she'd dumped on the spider had certainly gotten its attention, that attention didn't change from Raine at all like Yukari had hoped. Thinking quickly, she discarded the notion of trying to jab it with her parasol. Perhaps she could fling a chair at it? The youkai was just about to do so when she heard the ninja begin chanting and saw the light.

"Is that..?" Yukari's unfinished question though was unmistakably answered when she felt that force inside her stir. In her core, and in Sheena's, she could feel the bond that lay there pulse and grow. Her skin tingled, like the feeling of standing in a thunderstorm, a feeling almost electric. And with these sensations physical and magical came the response emotional: a big grin spread across her face.

"Oh, this will be good."

Sorry for the slow guys, I'll try and be more on the ball for you.

[damned_monsters]

The light nor the chanting distracted the massive arachnid from its target; as far as the creature's brain was able to process, the other two patients were happy to stay clear while it fed on the girl. It lunged forward again, trying to strike around the irritating stick that was being waved at it.

[per_ardua]

Raine could only glance at her companions, but her eyes certainly went wide at Sheena's incantation. She had made a pact with Yukari??

...As soon as this battle was over, she was going to be bombarding them both with questions for the rest of the night.

For now, though, she had to stay focused; Sheena couldn't defend herself while she was summoning, and she had no idea what would happen to a summon who was being called but already in the room. Fortunately, Raine could defend herself well enough for a brief time; she'd just be hard-pressed to keep it up.

No worries. This is almost done anyways.^^

[mizuhomaiden]

The sensation of summoning was nothing Sheena would ever be able to properly describe to another that had never experienced something so grand, so powerful, so very much a part of her. It wasn't like metaphorically reaching a hand out to something greater than you and pulling them to help you. No, it was like the junction of two streams of mana, connected always and yet still separate, twisting about each other to reach a certain synchronization. For a small moment, it was like summoner and summoned where one in the same. In any other instance, two beings cannot occupy the same space, but that was contradicted metaphysically when the pact is used. Individually, both Sheena and Yukari were strong in their own right, but together they were powerful

[mind_the_sukima]

As that electric tingle came to a climax, Yukari could feel the bond between her and and Sheena, summon and summoner, stronger than she'd ever felt it before. It was almost as if she was one with the ninja, in the same place as her - no, she was going to be in the same place as her, right now. Forgetting anything she'd learned so far about her limitations in this place, Yukari opened a gap behind her and stepped back into it, disappearing in an instant

[per_ardua]

Raine just stared, barely remembering to even keep an eye on the spider while Sheena summoned Yukari; she would have wondered what the point was, with Yukari in the same room, until she saw why. Apparently, joining with another's power allowed the youkai to rip at the limits on her own power and use her gap to swallow something far larger than she normally could here. The spider simply vanished into the hole that had opened up underneath it, and as Raine watched, the gap closed up again before the monster could even try to struggle out.

She was concerned when Yukari fell to her knees, but she seemed to be all right; so, she decided to give the girl some space and instead made a beeline for Sheena. "When--how--did you make that pact?!"

[mizuhomaiden]

The creepiness was well worth it, the card in her hand vanishing in a flash as Sheena's mana consumed its focus and call the youkai to her. Not that she had much to do to get to her, but that hadn't been the point. The point had been to make sure it did work and how effective the gap was

[mind_the_sukima]

Raine's reaction was amusing - stunned, surprised and far too interested. Of course, if the healer's reaction was amusing, then Sheena's was hilarious. That child-like giddiness, despite having practically collapsed, much like she had - really, what a cute girl.

"It worked," she agreed softly. Much as Yukari would have liked a kiss, she couldn't find the strength to move over to the ninja. Well, maybe she could have, but that would have taken effort. Of course, she couldn't refuse that hand reaching out to her. It was a little far away, but who would she be if she couldn't close a gap that trivial? Opening one of her holes in space, the youkai reached gently out, her hand appearing in midair and taking the ninja's.

No, this had not been a bad night at all, no matter how tiring it may have been.

[per_ardua]

When both of them collapsed, Raine finally realized how exhausting summoning must be here; there was a reason even at home Sheena didn't generally use her summons at the very beginning of a battle. And they had done it when Raine would have said it was impossible, due not only to their being from very different worlds but to their power restrictions.

Seeing them hold hands even when physically too far apart to touch made her smile very slightly; it was sweet.

Of course, her reaction then went straight to wondering if she could get Yukari at least, who seemed far less secretive, to tell her anything about how many levels that connection was on. If they were not only bound together by a pact, but lovers, how would that manifest when intimate?

Predictably unable to contain herself, Raine didn't give Sheena much of a chance to even get her breath back before she was asking "This was the first time you tried it out? Or just the first time using Yukari's powers in actual combat?"