video; un: felix & raddude5000

[heroooic]

[As the battle rages on outside the South Naelor fortress, two network messages will reach all fellow Orbers through their headsets. They come through only several minutes apart.]

___________

video; un: felix

[The POV recording is transmitted through to the network without context save Felix's associated username; dumping viewers immediately into the sight of a beaming Jun Shortaxe. He's standing in a stone-walled room, clapping with arrogant glee as he steps closer into the room.]

--you're wrong about the deal. The king's deal was done the moment the heirloom was taken away from the palace... it told me that itself. [He is facing Felix as he speaks, only turning to address a second unseen person as an afterthought.] Hi, Finn. Made it here like a real hero, I'm proud of you.

[Finn's shattered reply is heard instead of seen, Felix's POV fixed solely on Jun with unerring focus. He is capturing everything; every subtle twitch of his body language, every laughing shrug of his shoulders. It's only when Finn's confusion turns to anger that he comes into frame, stepping between Felix and Jun with sword outstretched in one hand and glowing orb in the other. With a quick toss, the orb is sailing through the air towards Felix. When he snatches it out of the air, viewers are granted a brief but detailed look at the orb itself. Veteran Orbers will recognize the power emanating from it immediately. This was their target.]

Your little act was always a bit too much, just so you know. [Felix drawls, offering his own amused assessment of Jun's betrayal just before pocketing the orb out of frame.] See ya.

[Those watching closely will notice the shadow Felix cast suddenly disappear, indicating that an invisibility spell was Felix's final gambit to leave successfully with the orb. Unfortunately, the ploy is shortlived. Just as Felix's point of view shifts towards the nearest window, Jun's deeply disinterested voice issues a simple command: Do it. Immediately, what could only be described as intense pain pollutes the mental recording with distortion. The crackle of electricity and Finn's scream can be dimly heard through the limited visibility and roaring static.

When the video feed resumes again, Felix is clearly on the ground. Waves of pained distortion still radiate through him, picture flickering as he begins to lose consciousness. From his new position on the floor, only Finn and Jun's legs can be seen. The latter slowly moves towards him as the former seems to freeze, dropping his sword in horror.]

He has about an hour. Being hit by that spell is not a joke... I should know. It was worth it, though. [The voice is unmistakably Jun's, hammered home as he kneels down into frame and reaches out towards Felix and retrieves the orb, which now glows even more brightly in the presence of its partner. He stands, back now to Felix, facing Finn fully. The picture is practically strobing now, capturing only a few frames of every second as it gives into blackness]

I'm sorry, I really did want to help Degar. [The regret in his voice even sounds genuine.] But the heirloom isn't something I can give him. He'd understand. All I'm doing is fulfilling the promise we made as kids--

[If there was any words or violence exchanged between the two of them, it's lost to the sudden grip of Felix's unconsciousness. The feed cuts completely.]

(( ooc: for full context of what Felix's recording captures, please read the npc thread HERE ))

___________

[To those on the battlefield, it will only be roughly eight minutes after Felix's video appears that an earthshaking noise and blinding light erupt from the South Naelor fortress. Rubble rains down from the keep's tower, shattered by the a set of imposing red wings. A red dragon with a single teal scale centered on his chest perches on the half destroyed tower, its origin as inexplicable as it was sudden.

The dragon lingers for a moment, staring at something in the wreckage, before taking wing towards the battlefield.]

[A few stunned moments later, another video appears on the network:]

___________

video; un: raddude5000

[The view is unclear, rubble obscured by dust and smoke and a distant din of battle. Finn’s voice however, is recognizable, and as the video shifts to where he is kneeling, so is the sight of Felix, who was lying motionless, plainly injured and bleeding. The placement and number of his wounds aren't clear, only their severity is obvious. The external distortion caused by Jun's spell is almost as nightmarish as the mental distortion Orbers experienced secondhand.]

We need help in the fortress-- Felix is hurt, bad and I... don’t know what to do. He needs a healer or a doctor, now. Like, ‘ten minutes ago’ now.

[Finn couldn't know how accurate Jun’s 'hour' claim was, or how much leeway there was in either direction. Felix had scarcely moved since going down, and if he was conscious it was only barely. His death felt all too real a possibility. Panic clouds Finn's voice in the face of it, speaking quickly.

He turns the camera back to himself, in part to spare Felix the voyeuristic exposure of capturing what could very well be his final moments on camera. Finn, dusty but uninjured, looks exhausted. The darker blood of the dremnin on the front of his armor and the brighter, fresher blood on his hand from touching Felix were visible as he pushes away a loose lock of hair. Sabriel’s careful braid saved him from complete dishevelment, but only just. He doesn’t quite look in the direction of the video, shoulders held up tensely as he speaks.]

Jun has the orb. He... I mean I think the orb is part of him now. It did something to him, turned him into a... [Finn pauses, searching for a word to describe the beast. There were no creatures like it from his world, where dragons were something else entirely.] I dunno, a dinosaur or something, and he’s heading your way now. You need to--

[His voice stops short, cut off in his throat by some kind of impossible emotion. A desperate part of him still wanted to implore some kind of leniency from them, some kind of mercy or understanding... but he holds it back. What mattered right now was everyone’s safety. If there was anything left to save of Jun Shortaxe, he couldn’t prioritize it right now. Not over everyone else.]

You need to stop him.

Comments

[heroooic]

Ziggy!

[In that moment, Finn's mind clears completely. No more dragon, no more Jun, no more orb -- just the screaming, immediate panic that this girl he shared a bread pudding with once might have just bit it over the mind-phone with him.

She speaks again and everything's okay, except for all the ways it still very much wasn't. It takes Finn a few seconds to mentally catch up, nodding along dumbly to her instructions for all she couldn't see him.]

R-Right! Yeah! I'm coming your way, so just don't die until I get there alright?

[Not a tiefling but also he only heard half of what she said, to be fair.]

[shadysided]

I'm not trying to make it a habit!

[It's said briskly as wipes her nose, knocked hard enough that it leaves a smear of blood underneath her lip, and manages to lift her short sword just in time for it to block some particularly sharp claws. The Dremnin knocks her aside after her weapon leaves a frantic mark across its torso — and she goes tumbling onto her stomach with an OOF, red hair falling around her and getting messy with dirt and debris.]

Dick-!

[She spits it, but her voice trembles with the beginnings of panic and fear. As much as she's fought, she hasn't fought enough to be less afraid when what feels like death is looming back over her. She scrambles for the sword that had fallen further than her, but the Dremnin's foot plants itself on her back, determined not to let her reach it.]

cw: gore 1/2

[heroooic]

[What was once a careful descent of the tower rubble was now more of the real-life version of one of BMO's platformers. Finn hops from stable-ish surface to stable-ish surface, tumbling a little further than he meant to on more than a couple occasions. What it lacked in safety it made up for in speed. Finn catches himself on the edge of the tower wall just as Ziggy's latest frustrated shout hits his ears.

... His actual ears, this time. Her voice was playing in stereo. With sudden alarm, Finn cranes himself over the wall's edge. About twenty feet below was Ziggy's unmistakable shock of red hair, and the equally unmistakably pleased growl of the dremnin dragging out its kill.]

Oh nuh-uh!

[There was no fear in Finn's shouted protest this time; he was all anger, channeling into some primal muscle memory as he draws Jun's sword and leaps off the wall. It wasn't exactly a sensible call, but Finn knew from experience that nothing softened the impact of a jump like a sword through monster meat. Not to mention the side benefit of momentum. No room for freezing up with gravity doing the heavy lifting.

Teeth grit for impact, Finn slices through the dremnin from shoulder to hip before that same momentum sends him rolling a couple yards away. An unfortunate spray of arterial blood and innards slough onto Ziggy from the cut. It smells uniquely terrible.]

2/2

[heroooic]

[Popping back up from where he'd rolled, Finn takes one look at her and almost immediately feels his stomach fold in on itself.]

Ziggy?! [His feet are moving before he realizes, tumbling towards her and hefting the dremnin pieces off her extremely bloody body.] No, no, no, no--

[The words too late stamp themselves firmly across his brain, stalling out all other thoughts as he frantically scans her for the source of the blood.]

[shadysided]

[Oof, that sucked.

Between the weight of something super heavy stomping the wind out of her and the subsequent gush of gross blood and guts on her? Yeah, she's going to really want those hot showers they'd talked about. A long nap, some chips and movies. All of it. But those kinds of thoughts can wait for when her thoughts aren't frozen on some ugly memory — because someone's weight over her while she's doused in blood isn't particularly new.

She rolls slowly over onto her back once the creature's gone, looking at Finn with round eyes like a deer in the headlights. Her hands slowly raise up to hover in front of her, painted red from what had splashed around her in the grass. Her tongue feels all twisted up, but:]

I'm — None of it's mine.

It's fine! [She starts sitting up, shakily kicking off something wet and gross trying to hang off her leg. Her back kind of hurts, but — ] I'm fine, I think.

[heroooic]

[She'll find equally wide eyes staring back at hers, searching them for cloudiness or lack of focus or any of the dozens of earmarks of death experience has trained him to look for. They were as bright and alive as ever, allowing a spark of hope to catch in Finn's chest. It brightens to a blaze when Ziggy says exactly the words he wants to hear]

Oh my glob. [Relief propels him forward, tossing his arms around Ziggy's deeply disgusting shoulders into the world's grossest and smelliest hug. She didn't really strike Finn as a hugger in the normal course of things, but that was the furthest thing from his mind. As far as he was concerned, this was the first moment in the last twelve hours that wasn't profoundly terrible in some way.] You're not dead. I really, really thought you were dead.

[shadysided]

[Oh. Oh!

Alright, this is happening. After a moment of being frozen, baffled, and (a little) frazzled, she offers a hesitant but earnest hug back. And as gross and awkward as it is to hug while covered in blood and sitting on the sideline of a big fight, it's admittedly placating enough that she can even sag into it.]

I'm not.

[What a graceful response. But something about the stupor of her words snaps her out of her daze, and she pats his back. Something about this kind of feels like he's the one who needs comforting right now, and it's distracting her from her near-death experience, so-]

... You're getting monster guts on you. Like. Everywhere.

[As she pulls back, she adds:]

That was pretty heroic. But I might have to bill you for dry cleaning.

[heroooic]

Huh?

[Similarly melted into it, it takes Finn a moment to grok exactly what she means. When they pull apart, a quick glance down is all it takes to click the gears in his head into motion.

The pair of them looked as if they'd just taken a slip n' slide through a butcher shop's week old garbage. Smelled like it, too.]

Oh yeah, of course. [Finn nods, completely missing the joke. She could've probably asked him for his kidney right now and he'd start fishing around for it.] I'm just glad I picked the right stretch of wall.

There's gotta be somewhere safe-ish the others are congregating to figure this whole mess out. We should find 'em. [Standing stiffly to his feet, Finn extends an arm down to help Ziggy do the same.] Can you walk, you think? I can carry you on my back if you can't.

[shadysided]

[She rubs her back with a hand, grimacing. It hurts, but it's not so bad that she's not able to force herself to get moving; more likely, she imagines she's gonna spend the next few days lying on a couch and complaining about back pain. But right now? Adrenaline and youth will keep her going.]

I think I'll survive.

[She reaches, holding whichever hand he's got free. Robot, flesh, whatever, a hand's a hand.]

Let's try to get back to the group, and we'll see if I collapse at any point from internal bleeding or something. [She says it with a roll of her eyes, as if that's not a totally big deal and awful image.] That'd be a real swell way of ending my worst birthday yet.

[She has dogshit luck, she has decided. For the umpteenth time.]

[heroooic]

[He accepts both the response and her hand, adjusting the angle so the servo-controlled grips can get a better hold on her wrist as they begun to run. His replacement fingers were optimized for just about anything except hand holding, really.

It's a fact Finn may have apologized for if Ziggy's casual birthday slip didn't do a hard reset on his brain.]

Wait, it's your birthday? Like, today? [He turns to gape at her briefly, but only briefly. Sympathetic shock or not, slowing down wasn't really an option.] Dude, that blows.

[shadysided]

[She winces.]

Sure is. Bad enough it's on Valentine's Day, now it's on a day where monsters are trying to murder me. [It should probably be on the very bottom of her priorities list, and yet here we are.] 'Gee, Ziggy, you know what you could use for a birthday present? A giant dragon trying to murder you and your friends!' It's like fate is out to get me. Maybe next year it'll almost put me in a guillotine!

[]

[heroooic]

[ Credit where it’s due, Ziggy’s impotent rage was pretty funny. Even when you’re running for your life, it’s hard not to laugh. ]

Okay, first of all, this is not your present. I—

[ The shouting order from one of the adults on the battlefield, urging them to take cover, is met with a frustrated sigh from Finn. What’s it look like they were doing??

Of course, that thought comes before the sudden low swoop from Jun, talons running deep furrows into the earth. Okay, yeah. Time to take cover.

There isn’t time to discuss; Finn chokes up his grip on Ziggy, pivoting sharply toward a nearby outcropping of rubble. It wasn’t perfect safety, but it would hide them from the dragon’s strikes and lingering hunting dremnin. ]

This way! C’mon. [ He indicates that she go first, eyes scanning the sky for Jun. It’s a tight fit, and Finn seems more concerned that the wounded person get in safely first. Just in case there wasn’t room for two. It is her birthday. ]

[shadysided]

[Ziggy rolls her eyes at any urges to take cover, for the record. As teens do.

But that's fair, hiding from a dragon trying to destroy them for the moment is a good idea; she doesn't plan to stay hiding, not when the crew needs back-up, but at least they would have a moment to recollect themselves — ]

Whoa! Watch out!

[Ziggy throws herself over Finn quite suddenly, because there's a large breath of fire rolling across the floor from one of Jun's attacks. Did he see Finn and aimed for him specifically? Or did he notice the bloody redhead sticking out like a sore thumb? Either way, the fire that falls across Ziggy's shoulders doesn't seem to harm her — in fact, she looks absolutely fine as the heat comes and goes, half-draped over Finn with a cheeky grin.]

Tielfing skillset.

[She shrugs like it's totally chill, rolling off him. There's still a little misty smolder that rolls off her undamaged hair as she goes.]

C'mon, o' noble knight! Squeeze in!

1/2

[heroooic]

[Finn notices the ribbon of fire hurtling towards them just a hair too late to react. His eyes widen, already feeling the heat on his face when Ziggy's voice cuts through the low hum of imminent death and takes him out at the chest.

Finn goes down hard, half shielded by rocks, half shielded by Ziggy herself. It sends up an instinctual wave of panic that's quickly doused by the sensation of one of her horns digging uncomfortably into his cheek. Oh, yeah.

There's a thunderous flap of wings as Jun moves onto other prey, satisfied that they were both burnt to a crisp. With him, so too leaves the oppressive heat that surrounded them. Er, everywhere except Finn's face that is.]

Heh. Cool. [He smiles a little too big at her teasing reminder.] Cool, cool, cool.

2/2

[heroooic]

[Finn sits up after she rolls off him -- blinking hard as certain realizations take root -- before following her into the root bunker. It was a tight fit, but urgency and the smell of smoldering grass all around them was a great cure for awkwardness. His eyes scan the sky, face falling as the active threat continued to screech across the sky.]

Man. Only magic's gonna bring that dude down.

[Finn says the words with grim certainty. Jun was simply too fast. Too high up. Short of throwing it up in the sky, Finn knew the sword he carried was next to useless against him.

Ziggy, though...

Ziggy could really help someone. And though Finn barely knew her at all, he did know that he wasn't going to be able to keep her in this hole for long. That was apparent from their shouted conversation over the network that, sure, but it was also just... obvious. The way she tracked the dragon's movements with her eyes, looking coiled to strike at any moment. The way she'd hurled herself on top of him with no hesitation at all. That was an instinct Finn could recognize immediately. It's the same instinct that sent him jumping off a wall not even twenty minutes prior.]

Listen--[Finn starts abruptly, voice urgent. He figures he has maybe a minute tops before Ziggy broke from the shelter and went running to shield one of the warlocks from Jun's fire. Had to get this out quick.] Today isn't your birthday, okay? Your new birthday is... tomorrow. Or, like, whenever we get the orb and go back to the ship and aren't sick or hurt or whatever. That's your birthday. And we'll do something fun, okay?

So don't die, 'cuz like... imagine dying the day before your birthday? So lame.

[shadysided]

Too fast, too big, too far up.

[She nods again and again to each point, confident that Finn's on the same wavelength. Even with her arrows, getting to the dragon? Hitting him? It's no easy task, one that she knows she'll need to improvise on a little.]

Super lame. I wish I had just snuck my jetpack in. I'll never doubt my intuition again.... [Okay, she probably will, but... Anyway! Looking over to him, she looks a little winded, a little tired, but she's found that special place in her where she can forget she's a little teenaged human who is scared of the situation — she's a fighter now, the one that the orbers had helped teach. She's got this.

... After she takes five to catch her breath.]

Something fun, huh. Cross your heart?

[heroooic]

Jetpack... [ Finn shakes his head, putting a pin in that tantalizing question for another day. A million other questions stowed away for another day...if they saw one.

And they would. Finn was holding onto that idea forcing himself to hold onto it, because the alternative? They fail, they lose, they die? That wasn't happening.

He smiles, tenuous but sincere, raising his hand in solemn promise, as serious as any oath he'd ever taken.]

Something fun. Cross my heart, hope to die, blah blah blah. [How did the rest of that old saying go?]

No dying, almost-birthday girl. I'll see you on the Ximilia.