IC: Dream Post

[doesnothappen]

The space you are standing in is cold and grey and very still. There is nothing beneath your feet, nowhere to go. You hang for a long moment, in this place with no place, without direction or a proper sense of time, until the light dims...

...and your feet touch ground. Your eyes are closed. When you open them, you find yourself here.

((OOC warnings/notes))

Comments

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*landing in a crouch, and surveying the scene calmly*

Okay. Let's do this.

*heading to that canoe, and as he steps in, his aura flares up and coalesces around him, forming a golden suit of armor.*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

The canoe guides itself, arrow straight, across the still water towards the light.

The stars go out.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*if the world were otherwise, this would be when the first strains of bossfight music would be heard.

standing straight and tall in the prow of the ship, his armor shedding golden radiance*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

Instead, you hear voices and laughter, and see the light of the bonfire ahead of you, on the little sandbar.

And if you look up, you can also see who is holding the sandbar.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*oh really, now.

looking up, yes.*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

You look up into the face of Locaha, huge and far away, his eyes patches of night in a darkness blacker than any night. His wings blot out the sky.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*looking up at him, calm and unafraid*

So. I don't think you're going to let go and go away, but I'll give you the chance to do it now.

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

No mouth moves that you can see, although he does have a mouth, or something like it... a suggestion of impossibly sharp teeth, and the voice is a whisper in your ear, though he towers above you:

That is not something I can do.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

Then you and I are going to have a problem.

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

There's amusement in the voice.

You wish to fight me, Josh?

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*raises an eyebrow*

Well, you could just leave. But we already covered why you won't. And I'm standing between you and them.

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

I think you will find that you do not.

And he closes his fist around the islet.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*except that when he tries, something resists -- a circle of glyphs that burn gold in the air, symbols from a language old before humanity rose, backed by the power of Josh's aura, preventing the great hand from closing*

You sure about that?

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

He sounds mildly surprised.

So you have some power.

"I can still crush you like a bug," goes unspoken, but his free hand is crashing down to do just that.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

More than some.

*and his aura is rising, burning gold around him, as the air surges to lift him clear of that blow. the wind around him begins to howl, and the pressure drops. a storm is coming.*

I'll show you how much, old god. Come and see!

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

Locaha closes his wings before him, encircling you both in a grey arena, containing and dampening the storm. The temperature drops rapidly.

It matters little. This is my world.

He swats at you again, trying to pin you between his wing and the back of his hand.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

Like I haven't heard that one before.

*and used it, not that he remembers; dropping at the last minute, his aura blazing higher to counteract the chill. but this time when he dodges he leaves a gift behind -- an intense burst of flame wrapped in air, ready to explode at the slightest pressure.*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

And Locaha's hand smacks right into it, knocking it against his wing and triggering the explosion; the wing seems totally undamaged, and remains, as ever, a featureless grey wall. But he jerks his hand back and roars in pain, a deafening rattle of thunder. He sets the islet down in the sea, leaving both hands free to crush you between. A rush of air precedes each one, two pressure fronts colliding with you in the middle.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*tenses at that; dropping into that icy water isn't appealing, flying out isn't likely with the air pressure, hurting him won't stop the hands with that momentum, but maybe, maybe....

...his aura flares again, but the hands of Locaha close over him.*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

They slam together with an enormous crack, two building-sized slabs of darkness colliding, the sound echoing around the enclosure of his wings. The force of it shudders through the air, stirring the sea to whitecaps that batter against the wards on the little islet.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*An incautious observer would assume that was the end of things. But a more careful one would notice that light still leaked between Locaha's palms -- faint, blocked by the vast size of the god, but there and growing brighter, multiplying, building...

A brilliant flash of orange and gold would blind the first observer, a terrible clap of thunder deafen the second. Locaha's hands are forced apart by a wave of terrible pressure and heat, and, limned in gold, a figure remains in their wake.

Josh has changed. His golden armor is gone; instead he wears a black leather cloak, his hood cast back. His left hand is gone, replaced by a scythelike hook. And he smiles as he looks up at the god, though there's nothing of humor in it.*

My turn.

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

And Locaha... sinks. The dome of his wings descends into the sea, dragging you down with him as he dives.

The islet is left behind, on the surface. This is personal now.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*which means that even if Josh dies here, he's won -- but he doesn't intend to die. The water doesn't touch him; a globe of air a few yards across falls with him into the depths.

For the first time, he goes on the offensive. Dozens of sparks leap from his aura, growing as they fly, transforming into hummingbirds of golden flame. Symbols of Mars Ultor in his role of Champion of Mankind, they dart at Locaha's face and eyes, each from a different angle.*

Re: The Shining Path

[doesnothappen]

You continue to descend swiftly; if nothing else, the increase in pressure of the water against the sides of your globe of air should tell you that.

As the hummingbirds speed toward Locaha, he opens his mouth and blows -- not a gust of air, but ferociously swirling currents to sweep the birds back. Those that reach his skin are... absorbed, and, unless Josh is sustaining them, extinguish. But where they hit, his outline becomes less defined, blurring with the water.

Simultaneously, his right hand gropes through the water to enclose your bubble -- your harriers have damaged his aim, but his hand is so big it probably doesn't matter.

Re: The Shining Path

[orange_sun]

*The hummingbirds aren't sustained, but they do detonate in brilliant flashes of gold, doing that little extra bit of damage before they vanish; Josh doesn't expect such small attacks to win the battle on their own, but every little bit helps. Those blown back curve through the water, leaving trails of searing bubbles as they reorient and attack again.

Josh concentrates, and the water around the bubble superheats; Locaha will have a very painful handful, if he continues, and the walls of it are solid air.*