recolle | [Closed] Dancing Red Spears

WHO: Pen and Freya
WHERE: Recolle Woods
WHEN: Early May, Pre-Event
WHAT: Pen has regained her second Esper and needs to defeat it to gain control.
WARNINGS: Violence, language, possible mentions of disease and death, though neither of them is dying.

[When she'd gotten the second ticket in the mail, Penelope had stared at it long and hard before even bringing it up with her partner. It was something she was eventually going to have to deal with, because one way or another this thing was going to get loose. She didn't trust Retrospec not to try and foist the demon off onto her, and while she had no idea what it might be, she knew it was going to be something powerful and dangerous.

Loathe as she was to ask Freya for help, Minako wasn't around, and she figured that trying this alone would be liable to get her hurt, which might set off Freya's brand. A double whammy bad outcome, so, she'd made her preparations and gathered her girlfriend up and the two had gone out towards a deserted corner of the forest, well away from civilization.

Resting Mithune, her enchanted rifle, against a tree Pen swallows and looks over at Freya.]

Are you ready? I'm going to call out Gilgamesh and Tons before we start. I don't know anything about this thing other than it's called Cu-Chulainn, and I'm willing to bet that it isn't anything like the real Irish Hercules.

[The Hound of Ulster, or whatever you want to call him.]

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[Almost as painful as the experience, probably. She could feel the lightness in her limbs and the clarity settle in her mind, but the constant, ubiquitous pain dampened the effect. Between the poison and hardly being able to breath, Freya almost took the suggestion to pull back, but a jolt of morbid humor stopped that motion before it began.]

[What was she scared of? Dying?]

[Best to end the bastard. Laughing was ill-advised at this juncture, and she revised her opinion on the pained, shallow breaths she was forced to take as a good thing. The less she inhaled that stuff, the better, right? Even if the lack of air made her head swim, and Freya knew she couldn't keep this up for long at all.]

[A grin tries to twitch onto her face as she attemps to shake the congealed blood from her arm, starting an approach towards Cu's right side. It's a fake; when the demon starts to react, she darts to the side, towards his left and kicking back up to the Esper's shoulders. It's difficult to get her limbs to coordinate properly through the searing pain, but Pen's spell helps; Freya yanks the dangling spear-staff from the monster's head, and on the drop down, slams both ends of the disjointed staff into its chest.]

[The feint works. The creature is already pretty disoriented from the attacks, and so the spear goes straight in, missing the vilest of Cu's organs and striking him right through the heart. The monster bellows in pain and rage, starting to struggle again, but she's hit the most vulnerable point on him. His body trembles, shakes, and begins to dissolve into a pool of sickly green light.

As it goes away, the stench, the cloud, all of that? Vanishes leaving only a glowing glyph that streaks across the clearing and slams into Penelope's chest, practically bowling her over.]

Jesus...Christ...!

[Freya drops to the ground unceremoniously on knees and forearms when the demon disappears, releasing her weapon and gasping for breath. Breathing still hurt, but this time it was the angry sting of a raw throat instead of corrosion, and Freya was never, ever taking clean air for granted again.]

[She's grateful that awful blood disappeared with the Esper, and rocks back to kneeling position, biting down pained grunts.]

[And Freya's grinning. She can't help it; she loves the pure adrenaline rush of it all too much, even if she absolutely never wanted to fight that particular pain in the ass again.]

Wasn't... bad. [The "too" in the middle of that gets lost in the hoarseness of her voice.] No Minako this time.

I don't know...

[Pen breathed out, already banishing the Yahri and calling out White Hare. The little rabbit appeared, already working his magic touch, several layers of restorative spells falling down onto Freya.]

No Minako but you actually got hurt. Last time nothing happened.

[Stepping forward, she inspects the damage. Mostly the burns, and more particularly...]

Your clothes are fucked. We're replacing those. Today.

[Her eyes close with a quiet sigh when the healing magic washes over. It kind of made her skin itch and tingle, but she'd take that over the blisters. The little hare's magic didn't seem to be particularly strong, not like Bahamut's so it'd probably take a little time, but...]

[Good enough for now. Freya chuckles and glances down at her clothes, her voice already clearing up.] So? We've got this covered. The little guy's makin' me better.

[Freya reaches up to Pen's shoulder to help pull her up. She could stand on her own without issue, but rib injuries were angry ones. Just because Freya didn't mind being injured on the front lines didn't mean she purposely aggravated her wounds.]

[Not only that, if the hare stuck around, the healing would be amplified. And it was happy to do that, hopping over to nuzzle Freya's leg. It's a healer, and it's here for all your healing needs.

Pen tugs to give Freya the support she needs, mindful of bruises and scrapes.]

We do. But I don't like seeing you hurt. You did good, though. I can...weirdly, feel his respect.

[She scoffs.] Like I give a rat's ass about that bastard's respect.

[But then Freya looks at Pen, tilting her head a bit.] You really gonna be okay, havin' something like that bonded to you? Yeah, Mateus is one thing, but--[Freya gives a pointed glance and vague wave to the lifeless patches of nature everywhere Cu touched.]--that plague on legs?

[Pen snorted.] He's certainly something, but yeah.

Weirdly, I think he'll be easier to deal with than Mateus. His...sense...is like a really stupid but well trained puppy. All he wants is to smash things, but he'll obey. [her head cants to one side, like she's listening to something.]

I can control him. And I just informed him that he's not allowed to do that gas thing, or make that stench if I summon him again.

So long as he's not gonna slowly poison you or whatever.

[Freya gives White Hare an appreciative pat, then stiffly walks over to where her weapon lay. She steps on part of the haft, twist her foot and rolling the weapon until she can get the mechanism to snap back into a spear. Then she scoops it up with her foot.]

[She pauses. A small sort of smile creeps onto her face, then Freya gives it a twirl to retract the blades.]

Come a pretty long from tomato hunting, huh?

Oh. Uh. No.

[She'll be fine.

Following Freya, White Hare hopping along behind them all...]

Yeah, it really is. We make a pretty good team. Sorry about leaving you alone there for a bit, that spell was pretty hard to make work at first.

[Freya gives a light shrug.]

Alone? Ha. Even if you step aside, I've got what, your other half-a-dozen creatures? [She vaguely waves a hand. Gil did his share, too.]

Still.

[She doesn't like it.]

Anyway. That was a pretty cool spell. I'll have to remember it. Should come quicker next time.

[Closed] Dancing Red Spears

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