Event Nine.

[awashmods]

Thus, on Life’s gloomy sea, Heareth the marinere Voices sweet, from far and near, Ever singing in his ear, “Here is rest and peace for thee!”

t's a dark night, and the sounds of feet in the darkness are further dampened and hidden by even more magic, as they are lured away by the soft sounds of dreams that are too good to be true, leaving the Town much, much emptier than when it began. On one side, an island, and a ticking clock to a gruesome death. On the other, the slow realization that those bonds everyone has been forging might mean much, much more than they first thought. Welcome to Awash's ninth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. You are welcome to start your own posts or logs for this event as well. If there are any questions, please ask them here. Please be sure to very clearly mark where your characters are in your prompts, so people know which they can tag depending on which group they are in. Thank you!

Comments

[passio]

Gah?!

[ you did your best, zelda, but dextera can’t believe this is the path she’s chosen to take.

he stumbles back, this time in surprise rather than exhaustion. even when zelda’s body hits the siren, it seems much more concerned with rescuing his sword from this horrible human holding it hostage. it reaches out with a clawed, webbed hand, struggling to get away from zelda.

it shrieks, but at least it’s not a song. ]

Stay there!

[ hold it down, he means, but he’s trying to think fast and sign is like his sixth language, not his first. ]

[withwisdom]

[ sometimes you just need to act in the moment, even if it doesn't seem very smart. she doesn't see his signing, too focused on holding down the siren, but even so she has no intent of letting go. even if the siren squirms and thrashes about, she's 5'5, weighs about 130 pounds, and won't quit despite the struggle. all the while she grits her teeth and hopes dextera can kill it with that sword or whatever magic he used before. ]

[passio]

[ dextera has a plan this time, instead of just blindly throwing himself against them both as before.

luckily, this time, it doesn’t involve burning the siren to a crisp. instead, while the monster is distracted by both zelda and the sword, dextera takes the chance to place his hands on it one more time. as before, they glow, but it’s more like the siren is changing underneath his touch. ]

Ngh…!

[ the body of the creature seems to melt into light and reform as a round, glowing crystal, and zelda is freed from her burden of pinning the siren. ]

[withwisdom]

[ slowly but surely as the light grows stronger, she feels the siren moving less and less in her arms. then it suddenly begins to reform and disappear, her arms slowly loosening their hold until they encircle the air alone. she regards the crystal with a quiet awe and then carefully lifts it from the ground, afraid it might break if she isn't cautious enough. ]

What sort of power... [ but no, this is no time to ask any burning questions. she offers to crystal to dextera as she picks herself up from the ground. ] Lets hurry along now.

[passio]

[ dextera takes the crystal quickly, pocketing it—and he looks terribly winded after all that, but zelda is right. they should move. there will be time for questions later, and he’s sure she has quite a few of him.

trying to catch his breath, he starts walking. ]

Hurt?

[ she did just throw herself onto a siren after all, even if it quickly switched targets to dextera’s sword. ]

[withwisdom]

Not more than I am.

[ her body is sore all over, her bite stings, and she feels like she'll collapse if she doesn't keep moving. really though she's felt worse than this and that reminder pushes her to keep putting one foot in front of the other. ]

Don't worry about signing. You need to conserve your energy too.

[passio]

[ honestly, her reassurance doesn’t help much when she’s been doing the hard work and her spear was lost to the shore, but dextera nods anyway. there’s so little he can do like this. ]

…

[ luckily, their path to the rafts isn’t interrupted by any more sirens, and dextera is relieved to see that not all of them have departed from the island. he gestures to the boats the rocks they’re moored against, offering his hand to zelda to help her.

she can’t leave on her own, but maybe a group will show up before long that can go along with her. ]

[withwisdom]

[ the hand of help is appreciated, as her legs feel like they could come apart at any moment now, and gritting the pain is becoming harder. at least now they're back to safety. ]

Will you go back to help others?

[passio]

[ dextera nods. he needs a rest first, but if he abandoned the island now, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. he doesn’t want to leave until guren does. ]

Will you be OK?

[withwisdom]

I will be now. [ she gives him a smile, mustering up some confidence into it, and gives him a gentle pat on the shoulder. ] Do be careful. And if it becomes too much, there's no shame in retreat.