paradisalogs | 18

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18 - Rye

Who: Duke and any other sleepers~
What: Welcome to Duke's nightmares
When: During Nightmare plot
Where: Random forest clearing - or dream-like odd shifting. It's a blind guy's dream, who knows.
Rating: pg 13 for blood and deaths.

Its a bit murky, the forest and trees of an area remembered but not seen in a long time. Unsurprising, to those who knew Duke, who is currently sitting along the side of...

Calling it a monster would be accurate, given its size, and meld of parts. Large with fur, feathers, scales in white and yellow, multiple pairs of wings tucked against its side. The creature is the only thing, aside from Duke, who is clear about the dream. Duke looks a bit like a doll in size to the creature, and both seem to be injured, but healing, by the brown splotches to the fur and bandages to Duke. It was almost peaceful, a forest and small birds..

That all take flight as faceless warriors swarm in, causing both human and creature to lurch to feet, try to get clear. Surely a creature of that size, injured or not, wouldn't be troubled by a score and half of men and women with swords, spears, crossbows, and magic. Should have been able to get one swordmage and one large monster out.

It wasn't. Duke staggers away, then struggles to remain from going down as the creature roars-screams, and Duke freezes half down as blood splatters over him.

There are other faceless fighters, other people knocked apart and hurt. Maybe they aren't familiar to Duke, but they might be familiar to someone.

(OOC: The other "fighters" can be any sort of officials, or soldiers, or military for the added characters. The person getting targeted is anyone close to the added character. Duke's own 'friends' will get oddly described from when he's in Para, so o/ ... and he probably won't remember more than vague details of any other dreamers.)

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Again, it seems to help - but never quite enough. There's always too many, and Duke is wavering between his anger and unmoving despair at this point. It may be clear that he's come to the conclusion that he can't do anything. Again.

When the wings of the second, smaller creature hang useless, and it screams with a birds voice - that sounds oddly like a humanoid woman at the same time - and it pushes Duke toward just collapsing because everything he does, doesn't help.

Sheena's standing next to Duke by this time, her mana steadily decreasing the more she uses her cards. She has no gels to replenish her power, so a Summon is out of the question.

Yet, she's determined not to let her friends down--or their deaths be in vain. Spurred on by the cry from the creature, she grabs Duke by the arm and shakes him slightly.

"Don't give up! By the gods of Mizuho, don't you dare give up!"

"It does nothing!" Her shaking is enough for him to catch his balance again, even if he still doesn't look like he has the will to continue fighting. He stares at the fighting, where some indistinct people-shapes are trying to help and then cry out with warped-but-familiar voices at the soldiers turn their attention. The fire from the next spell bowled some of the soldiers, but weakens with every pained cry, as if Duke is getting hurt rather than the other 'people'.

"Nothing I do aids, it never did!" That may be the biggest hint that this isn't a completely unfounded nightmare.

"Listen to me!" she snaps at him, forcing him to face her. She knows the anguish he's feeling, the guilt that is more than likely accompanying it, but she's learned that giving up is not the answer. Hopefully, she can make him realize it, too.

"For those who tried to save you and protect you, do not let what they did be for nothing! Never let a person's sacrifice be in vain!"

"There is nothing I can do!" Duke is... not understanding. Everything he does, it does nothing against those who killed his friends. There's always more of them, they keep coming back, and all that is going to end up happening is him getting exhausted to the point where he physically can't do anything.

And his friend wouldn't have come if he hadn't been there.

"Nothing works."

"Like hell!" Sheena retorted. "You can refuse to give up! These creatures died for you!" Words that were spoken to her in a time that seemed forever ago came to her. "Don't insult them by not facing the ones who did this. Don't let your fear win, or it will haunt you forever!"

"If I knew more than empire, than Zaphias, I would have already-" He's not quite sure why this woman thinks he's afraid, he's useless and angry, but in that 'I can't do anything' sort of way.

"Nothing-" Spiral Flare is hurled through the knights. They fall and more form from the mists slowly feeding through the trees. "-does-" Bloody Howling, causing some to shred and vanish, once again replaced by the mists that seem to be spawning the first creature again. "-anything!" Holy Rain, brightening the gloom and darkening it at the same time with the golden spears from the sky.

"I don't know who to hurt for this!" the creature dies again, and its cry sends a full body shudder through Duke. And then the deaths start repeating.

It's the fear of failure, of being unable to protect those who count on him that Sheena's referring to--that same uselessness he's feeling as he demonstrates how ineffective whatever he tries actually is.

"I don't know, either!" Sheena responds, her eyes growing wide as she sees her friends fall again before her eyes. Once more, she takes off, but instead of going for those who hurt her friends, she plants herself in front of the creature. She really doesn't understand what's happening, but it's irrelevant. These two needed protection, and that's what she'll give them.

"Get out of here!" she demanded.

Oh. Well, that would make sense. A lot of sense.

Duke jerks - he wasn't expecting her to do that, not at all - and takes a half step forward to follow. And then he's completely bewildered. The obvious answer of 'what did you think we were trying to do', and Duke struggles to catch his friends attention.

Maybe it would change. It already had, with these new people. Although not much had changed so far....

Too bad, Duke. What's done is done--that's how Sheena is, and the young woman is not about to budge as she defends him and the creature from those attacking them.

Sensing his movement behind her, she turns and ignoring the blood streaming down her face, glares at him. "Stop! I told you to get out of here! Now GO!"

Perhaps she can help right the wrongs these two have suffered already.

Duke gives her a sort of 'I know' look, before darting in to get a grip on his friend's tail, tug once, and dart away. The creature turns, looking like it was going to snap at the offender, blinked, and... gave a sort of bow of 'thanks' to Sheena as it turned with the boneless turning-radius of a cat to follow.

They dart off through the trees... and back through the trees on the other side.

Sheena returns his gesture with a nod, and goes back to what she had set out to do: cover them while they escape. Luckily, she still had plenty of seals with her, so she'll be able to keep them busy for a while.

She hopes.

Those hopes are shattered when she realizes the newcomers across the field were the two she had just sent off to safety.

"What the hell is going on?"

Duke stares blankly at the clearing, as if he can't quite process why he is seeing it.

"No." It's really quiet, again on the verge of just.. crumbling, before he twists and darts off at a different angle through the trees...

and ends up entering at a mirrored angle on the other side.

Sheena watches in horror as he keeps disappearing and reappearing into the woods and clearing at different spots. It's one thing to be in a place with similar rooms that confuse a person, but this--this is much worse.

Because she can't think of any way to stop it.

Neither can Duke, given the way he just... stops, slightly out of breath. It wasn't working. Going out did nothing.

With a raw noise of that fear she was thinking about and he didn't quite understand, and frustration and his useless fury at being useless, Duke attempts to burn down some of the trees.

That doesn't turn the color on any leaves.

Her movements automatic as she continues battling her opponents, Sheena's horror only deepens as she takes in Duke's predicament. An idea forms, and she begins to back away from her attackers just slow enough to keep them with her long enough to increase the distance between them and the pair she's protecting. Suddenly, she darts into the trees and isn't disappointed to find herself on the opposite side, close to Duke.

"I'll help." She switches out her Cards for Fire and adds their power to his. Maybe together they can burn those trees down.

"... Thank you." Maybe. He's hesitant to even hope that this will do anything at all, given what had happened to that last tiny bit of hope he'd had.

Does he remember the other fire spells? Fireballs, a group of ten rather than three, Spiral Flare followed by Flame Dragon, and a somewhat sloppy Crimson Flare, formed by half remembered formula from when it was cast at him. An equally sloppy Eruption, the volcano misshapen and rather flat.

These don't seem to do much, so Duke draws on more of his mana, twisting Thunder Blade and removing the wind from it - an odd shaped thing of fire that looked unfocused - taking Tempest and part of the wind from that - a fire tornado. He's shaking from using too much too fast, but still reaches to try a quick twist into another spell.

"You're welcome." Right now, Sheena has enough hope for both of them. Hope and determination. While he's using whatever spells he can--no matter how weak or strange they appear--Sheena adds her Fire Cards to the mix, the flames erupting from them growing smaller and smaller as her mana begins to run out.

"This isn't good," she mutters, reaching a hand out to steady him. What had Yuan done before? Gave part of his mana to Kratos? She's not sure how to do it, but still, she tries, willing what she can to the man to help him with his magic, not knowing if it'll work or not.

Duke paused, another hastily thrown together spell flickering as he registers more mana. It didn't really make sense, until he blinked and did his best to focus on the mana rather than the physical world.

She was giving him mana? He is glad for it, really, as it was getting hard for him to pull mana from himself or the atmosphere, but he was careful. It was from someone alive, not the atmosphere, so despite the fact he really wished he could grab, mold, release and reach again, he slowed his spells, trying to make the most of the mana she offered.

They're probably both going to collapse from mana exhaustion before anything happens to the trees, much to Duke's despair.

The pull of her mana from her feels almost identical to when the Spirits do it, so she remains calm and as steady as possible as he does what he needs to. "I wish I had more to spare," she tells him, using the seals she has to steal as much mana from their enemies as possible--but even they're running out.

"I don't think I'm going to last much longer," she murmured. Finally speaking the unwanted dismal truth actually makes things better for her as she accepts her fate. "I really wish I have done more to protect you..." She looks at the creature and gives it a small smile.

"I think you and Aska would have gotten along." Wearing the same smile, she nods to the man and runs forward. She may lose, but dammit, she's going down fighting.

Both the creature and Duke hold similar looks of confusion - neither having any idea as to what an Aska would be - although Duke's expression fades back into that hopelessness as he watched her charge.

There had to be a way. Duke nearly stumbles as a beaked nose knocks into his shoulder, and causes him to look up.

Up.

"So stupidly human!" They've tried the sides, what if they tried up?! It only takes a few words to get his friend to understand his idea, and then Duke throws what power he has left into healing the creature's wings.

Sheena, don't panic too much at being snatched by Duke as the creature does his best to bowl those soldiers over and take to the sky.

If it doesn't work, maybe they'll break their necks and it will be fine.

Sheena's in the midst of a group of soldiers who freeze when they see something odd above them. The young ninja, ignoring the shadow that covers them, keeps striking, knocking down foe after foe--made much easier by their stillness.

She's in the middle of yet another blow when she suddenly feels her arm grabbed and pulled on. "What the--?!" she manages to get out before looking up and seeing what was going on. A huge grin spreads across her face as she kicks one solder in the face before finishing the climb aboard the creature.

"Perfect!"

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18 - Rye

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