Patrollogs
(Everly's decursing attempt)
[Sun Sep 15 2024]
On the Manicured Sands of Sidney Beach
It is night, about 60F(15C) degrees, There is a waxing gibbous moon.
Everly blink-blinks up out of her staring contest with the shiny silver ring before her like she just got knocked out of a daze. "Huh, why?" she croaks, looking round and up at Ash. When they clarify, she sleepy-blinks and mumbles, "Oh. My bad."
Ash sure doesn't look like they casually walked off a building then walked bullishly through the forest to get here, but they're here. They laugh at Everly, though, saying, "Have you never dealt with a cursed item? Do you know anything about them?"
Ash frowns as the area proves more public than they would like.
Ash says "You have a nightmare charm?"
"Sure," says Everly, though to which of those questions is unclear. She plucks the ring up into her palm off the stone she'd set it on, and presents it in offer to Ash. "You wanna hold it?" she buzzes at him, gaze dull. And then, "If you start going full Smeagol on it, I'ma take it off you."
Ash laughs, then shakes their head. No.
Ash says "Let's go into the nightmare, then, for this."
Everly bobs an easygoing nod back at them and mumbles, "Fair-fair." The ring is wrapped into the flesh of her palm and she rocks up onto her feet -- and through the veil.
"I'm not all that subtle in these things." Illyana mentions helpfully, for now managing to cup the curiously dark angelfire in her palms, the tongues only flickering between her fingers every few seconds. But she cant hide the literal glow in her eyes.
Ash says "Alright, now we can get serious."
Everly squints against Ash's light like somebody just flashed their highbeams in the oncoming lane. "Me neither," she laments to Illyana, sliding a wry look her way.
Belatedly, Everly realizes she should probably ask Illyana, "... Who're you, sorry? Howlett, right?"
Ash holds out their hands, and allows little will o' wisps to bubble up from the surface of the palms of their hands. Each one is a small, animate, living flame. They bubble up one by one, then in numbers, then in droves like carbonation, until they form a giant will o' wisp of light.
Ash says "You'll want to have some focus - it might catch you on fire, otherwise."
A section of Illyana's clothing catches fire.
"Imma make it worse." Illyana smirks, bursting into flame, the mixed scents of pure angelfire and brimstone emenating from the conflagration.
Ash nods their head to Illyana, saying, "Like that. That's your fault, Everly." They seem more amused than anything. Then, they clarify, "Not the rest of it."
"Hey..." patting fire out, Illyana grumbles. "At least it's not electric this time." though her own flames don't bother her in the least.
"--Uh, yeah. Focus," Everly agrees as she's visibly and thoroughly distracted by Ash's wall-o'-will-o'-wisps. Ironically, the prophecy comes true, but not for Everly -- Illyana lights up like a Christmas tree. Grimacing, Everly accepts responsibility for this outcome and tells Illyana with a thick vocal fry, "Sorryyyyy."
Ash raises the giant mega will o' wisp with magical powers... then drops it on their head. It splashes onto them like liquid, bursting until Ash is soaked in... light? Unperterbed, they grin, then they start moving as if... waterbending. But light. Lightbending? "Now," they drawl, "The nature of curses vary, but it's essentially an active source of energy, or mana. The way most arcanists decurse items is to manipulate that wild energy, or mana, and either tame it, or neutralize it."
Moving her hands, Illyana lets her own flames bank; the pyre growing around her before focusing, with great effort in her palms.
Ash stumbles, then grumbles, leaning down to remove their boots, cursing. "I should have gone home to fucking change, godsdamned boots...."
The whole room shakes.
Ash conjures up, bathes in, and bends light. Illyana is a living flame, a conflagration of demonstrable power.
And Everly is just a scruffy slouch standing here in her ugly Uggs, wet sand all over her butt. But she's listening closely to Ash - or at least appears to be - and nods a little to him before opening her palm to showcase the cursed ring. A simple loop of silver.
Just then is when the earth itself rumbles; Everly stumbles but widens her stance, and sure as shit doesn't drop the ring.
Ash relaxes when their feet are free from their prisons. "Better. Now." They return to lightbending, twisting the liquid lights around and balancing with skill despite taking very deliberate steps in specified angles. It's fortunate that they had removed their boots, just in time for the area to quake. Barefoot, their balance is just fine.
Ash says "Fire, earth... next is ice, I believe."
Ash says "Ice, lightning, or sound, but I *think* ice comes next."
Illyana is inhumanly graceful. The area shakes as though under a quake, and that building pyromantic energy is disbursed. The flaming bohemian hisses, the flames around her drifting to flow behind her, as though incandescent fiery wings, with only a slight focus over her fists. Eyes a glow, there is a visible effort. She begins to glow from within, pure and white against the inferno that shrouds her, and there is a moment... Then, once more, the angelfire gathers between her palms again..
Narrowly avoiding getting covered in yet more sand, Everly tells Ash with a total confidence that she has no right to, "Definitely ice." She has no clue what she's talking about, she just supports them, one hundred percent.
With a distracted glance over her shoulder toward Sergio to the southwest, she asks her comrades, "What's up with that thing? That part of it?"
"Guess not, huh," Everly deduces with a sleepy blink.
Ash has their light moving just as they want it, then starts to send steady streams into the ring. "Oh, no. That's either someone about to fuck up someone else, or a monster coming to life. It's not coming after us, though, so who cares? Just keep a note in case someone we care about starts complaining about being kidnapped."
An arc of lightning blasts out of the artifact to strike Everly, sending her flying.
Ash reaches out to Illyana, sucking in the light of her flames as well as they continue their graceful, dancing movements as they transfer light to the ring. "Now, I take it that you're not the magical sort, Everly? This is fine - you don't *need* magic to manipulate energy. You just - Everly! I said to focus! Now I have to rebuild the connection!" They sigh, mildly inconvenienced by Everly getting hit by a blast of lightning.
Everly sniffs and mutters to herself in pensive tones, "Preeeeetty spooky for someone repping the Order's sword-and-scroll..." But Ash told her to focus, and so she turns her attention back to the task at hand--
--just in time to get flung backwards with a scratch yelp. She hits the oceanward face of the boulder here with a thud and lands in a rumple of raggedy clothes.
Exceptionally helpfully, Illyana mentions to Ash and Everly Though at this point it's clear to see, "I'm not very good at this without a warm up." Her expression falls into a frown and she manages to manipulate the angelic flame into a focused beam that dances eratically. "I just burn the curse right on out." Then, Everly gets hit by the lightning, not Illyana, and she cackles madly. For some reason this makes Illyana very happy and she directs her bar of fire towards the ring.
Everly is utterly still on the beach there for a solid three seconds. Then a shaky, skinny arm lifts and presents the ring so that Ash and Illyana can keep working. "... I'm to-otally th... the magical sort," she wheezes, perhaps not audible over the sound of Illyana's (deserved) laughter.
Ash huffs, annoyed - and definitely not hiding a smile - as they spin around, redirecting their flow. Their light dances around Illyana's fire, feeding parasitically off of it, growing fat and gluttonous as they aim for the ring, feeding into it. "As Yana mentioned, we are using the balloon animal method. Feed it until it bursts." They could have said balloon method, but no, they just *had* to make it an animal.
For several seconds the room grows painfully cold.
Ash says "Alright, watch your ears. Before it's done, it'll try and pop them. We're almost done, just try and focus, yes?"
"It's not me for a change." Illyana mentions conversationally to Ash. "You are paying for my clothing burns." she also very reasonably tells Everly.
"Sounds ideal," Everly rasps through chattering teeth, her breath now a visible puff that diffuses. Ash was right about the ice. Everly starts frowning in some form of concentration until she finds herself receiving an invoice. From down there on the flat of her back in the sand, she slants a heavy-lidded look Illyana's way. "... I look like I got money for ya?" she drones. If this is what affluence looks like, what even is money.
Ash hushes Illyana, saying, "Yana, you must be flawless in front of the newbie. You never do anything wrong. If you trip, roll into a walk, or find a $100 bill on the ground. Don't admit to fucking up - that's how you inspire awe." They scold their friend without even dropping their voice to ensure that Everly doesn't hear it.
Ash snorts, adding to Illyana, "She thinks she's paying in money."
Everly winces as Ash points out the flaw in her plan. "... awh, man..." Or maybe she was saying 'awe.' She's in awe down here.
"--ohshit," Everly rattles. In the last throes of its overwhelming power suffusion, the ring has begun to vibrate and jag restlessly, like it means to burst free. Everly cages it in the trap of her fingers so it can't escape, and begins to warble, "I-I think it's--"
Ash focuses for the last bit, combining their light with Illyana's power as they pump more and more power into the ring, feeding it like an amnesiac feeds a cat.
"Admitting to weakness is how you engender complience in your workers." Illyana shrugs. With Ash taking up the slack, she can focus less, so she does. Her light is incandescent now and the fire builds, grows and rages furiously; It is potentially a reflection of the internal rage, something comperable to the dragon, Gonthorian- Maybe even some connection? Never the less, that fire, that anger, that inferno is directed into Ash's light construct, and Illyana tells Everly. "I'll charge you in something you can afford." - She's kind like that.
Everly throws a skinny arm over her face as though to shield herself from a grenade. One that she's holding onto very tightly. Is she about to lose a whole limb?
With a final burst of power the curse on a silver ring is broken.
Everlys Decursing Attempt 240916
(Everly's decursing attempt)
[Sun Sep 15 2024]
On the Manicured Sands of Sidney Beach
It is night, about 60F(15C) degrees, There is a waxing gibbous moon.
Everly blink-blinks up out of her staring contest with the shiny silver ring before her like she just got knocked out of a daze. "Huh, why?" she croaks, looking round and up at Ash. When they clarify, she sleepy-blinks and mumbles, "Oh. My bad."
Ash sure doesn't look like they casually walked off a building then walked bullishly through the forest to get here, but they're here. They laugh at Everly, though, saying, "Have you never dealt with a cursed item? Do you know anything about them?"
Ash frowns as the area proves more public than they would like.
Ash says "You have a nightmare charm?"
"Sure," says Everly, though to which of those questions is unclear. She plucks the ring up into her palm off the stone she'd set it on, and presents it in offer to Ash. "You wanna hold it?" she buzzes at him, gaze dull. And then, "If you start going full Smeagol on it, I'ma take it off you."
Ash laughs, then shakes their head. No.
Ash says "Let's go into the nightmare, then, for this."
Everly bobs an easygoing nod back at them and mumbles, "Fair-fair." The ring is wrapped into the flesh of her palm and she rocks up onto her feet -- and through the veil.
"I'm not all that subtle in these things." Illyana mentions helpfully, for now managing to cup the curiously dark angelfire in her palms, the tongues only flickering between her fingers every few seconds. But she cant hide the literal glow in her eyes.
Ash says "Alright, now we can get serious."
Everly squints against Ash's light like somebody just flashed their highbeams in the oncoming lane. "Me neither," she laments to Illyana, sliding a wry look her way.
Belatedly, Everly realizes she should probably ask Illyana, "... Who're you, sorry? Howlett, right?"
Ash holds out their hands, and allows little will o' wisps to bubble up from the surface of the palms of their hands. Each one is a small, animate, living flame. They bubble up one by one, then in numbers, then in droves like carbonation, until they form a giant will o' wisp of light.
Ash says "You'll want to have some focus - it might catch you on fire, otherwise."
A section of Illyana's clothing catches fire.
"Imma make it worse." Illyana smirks, bursting into flame, the mixed scents of pure angelfire and brimstone emenating from the conflagration.
Ash nods their head to Illyana, saying, "Like that. That's your fault, Everly." They seem more amused than anything. Then, they clarify, "Not the rest of it."
"Hey..." patting fire out, Illyana grumbles. "At least it's not electric this time." though her own flames don't bother her in the least.
"--Uh, yeah. Focus," Everly agrees as she's visibly and thoroughly distracted by Ash's wall-o'-will-o'-wisps. Ironically, the prophecy comes true, but not for Everly -- Illyana lights up like a Christmas tree. Grimacing, Everly accepts responsibility for this outcome and tells Illyana with a thick vocal fry, "Sorryyyyy."
Ash raises the giant mega will o' wisp with magical powers... then drops it on their head. It splashes onto them like liquid, bursting until Ash is soaked in... light? Unperterbed, they grin, then they start moving as if... waterbending. But light. Lightbending? "Now," they drawl, "The nature of curses vary, but it's essentially an active source of energy, or mana. The way most arcanists decurse items is to manipulate that wild energy, or mana, and either tame it, or neutralize it."
Moving her hands, Illyana lets her own flames bank; the pyre growing around her before focusing, with great effort in her palms.
Ash stumbles, then grumbles, leaning down to remove their boots, cursing. "I should have gone home to fucking change, godsdamned boots...."
The whole room shakes.
Ash conjures up, bathes in, and bends light. Illyana is a living flame, a conflagration of demonstrable power.
And Everly is just a scruffy slouch standing here in her ugly Uggs, wet sand all over her butt. But she's listening closely to Ash - or at least appears to be - and nods a little to him before opening her palm to showcase the cursed ring. A simple loop of silver.
Just then is when the earth itself rumbles; Everly stumbles but widens her stance, and sure as shit doesn't drop the ring.
Ash relaxes when their feet are free from their prisons. "Better. Now." They return to lightbending, twisting the liquid lights around and balancing with skill despite taking very deliberate steps in specified angles. It's fortunate that they had removed their boots, just in time for the area to quake. Barefoot, their balance is just fine.
Ash says "Fire, earth... next is ice, I believe."
Ash says "Ice, lightning, or sound, but I *think* ice comes next."
Illyana is inhumanly graceful. The area shakes as though under a quake, and that building pyromantic energy is disbursed. The flaming bohemian hisses, the flames around her drifting to flow behind her, as though incandescent fiery wings, with only a slight focus over her fists. Eyes a glow, there is a visible effort. She begins to glow from within, pure and white against the inferno that shrouds her, and there is a moment... Then, once more, the angelfire gathers between her palms again..
Narrowly avoiding getting covered in yet more sand, Everly tells Ash with a total confidence that she has no right to, "Definitely ice." She has no clue what she's talking about, she just supports them, one hundred percent.
With a distracted glance over her shoulder toward Sergio to the southwest, she asks her comrades, "What's up with that thing? That part of it?"
"Guess not, huh," Everly deduces with a sleepy blink.
Ash has their light moving just as they want it, then starts to send steady streams into the ring. "Oh, no. That's either someone about to fuck up someone else, or a monster coming to life. It's not coming after us, though, so who cares? Just keep a note in case someone we care about starts complaining about being kidnapped."
An arc of lightning blasts out of the artifact to strike Everly, sending her flying.
Ash reaches out to Illyana, sucking in the light of her flames as well as they continue their graceful, dancing movements as they transfer light to the ring. "Now, I take it that you're not the magical sort, Everly? This is fine - you don't *need* magic to manipulate energy. You just - Everly! I said to focus! Now I have to rebuild the connection!" They sigh, mildly inconvenienced by Everly getting hit by a blast of lightning.
Everly sniffs and mutters to herself in pensive tones, "Preeeeetty spooky for someone repping the Order's sword-and-scroll..." But Ash told her to focus, and so she turns her attention back to the task at hand--
--just in time to get flung backwards with a scratch yelp. She hits the oceanward face of the boulder here with a thud and lands in a rumple of raggedy clothes.
Exceptionally helpfully, Illyana mentions to Ash and Everly Though at this point it's clear to see, "I'm not very good at this without a warm up." Her expression falls into a frown and she manages to manipulate the angelic flame into a focused beam that dances eratically. "I just burn the curse right on out." Then, Everly gets hit by the lightning, not Illyana, and she cackles madly. For some reason this makes Illyana very happy and she directs her bar of fire towards the ring.
Everly is utterly still on the beach there for a solid three seconds. Then a shaky, skinny arm lifts and presents the ring so that Ash and Illyana can keep working. "... I'm to-otally th... the magical sort," she wheezes, perhaps not audible over the sound of Illyana's (deserved) laughter.
Ash huffs, annoyed - and definitely not hiding a smile - as they spin around, redirecting their flow. Their light dances around Illyana's fire, feeding parasitically off of it, growing fat and gluttonous as they aim for the ring, feeding into it. "As Yana mentioned, we are using the balloon animal method. Feed it until it bursts." They could have said balloon method, but no, they just *had* to make it an animal.
For several seconds the room grows painfully cold.
Ash says "Alright, watch your ears. Before it's done, it'll try and pop them. We're almost done, just try and focus, yes?"
"It's not me for a change." Illyana mentions conversationally to Ash. "You are paying for my clothing burns." she also very reasonably tells Everly.
"Sounds ideal," Everly rasps through chattering teeth, her breath now a visible puff that diffuses. Ash was right about the ice. Everly starts frowning in some form of concentration until she finds herself receiving an invoice. From down there on the flat of her back in the sand, she slants a heavy-lidded look Illyana's way. "... I look like I got money for ya?" she drones. If this is what affluence looks like, what even is money.
Ash hushes Illyana, saying, "Yana, you must be flawless in front of the newbie. You never do anything wrong. If you trip, roll into a walk, or find a $100 bill on the ground. Don't admit to fucking up - that's how you inspire awe." They scold their friend without even dropping their voice to ensure that Everly doesn't hear it.
Ash snorts, adding to Illyana, "She thinks she's paying in money."
Everly winces as Ash points out the flaw in her plan. "... awh, man..." Or maybe she was saying 'awe.' She's in awe down here.
"--ohshit," Everly rattles. In the last throes of its overwhelming power suffusion, the ring has begun to vibrate and jag restlessly, like it means to burst free. Everly cages it in the trap of her fingers so it can't escape, and begins to warble, "I-I think it's--"
Ash focuses for the last bit, combining their light with Illyana's power as they pump more and more power into the ring, feeding it like an amnesiac feeds a cat.
"Admitting to weakness is how you engender complience in your workers." Illyana shrugs. With Ash taking up the slack, she can focus less, so she does. Her light is incandescent now and the fire builds, grows and rages furiously; It is potentially a reflection of the internal rage, something comperable to the dragon, Gonthorian- Maybe even some connection? Never the less, that fire, that anger, that inferno is directed into Ash's light construct, and Illyana tells Everly. "I'll charge you in something you can afford." - She's kind like that.
Everly throws a skinny arm over her face as though to shield herself from a grenade. One that she's holding onto very tightly. Is she about to lose a whole limb?
With a final burst of power the curse on a silver ring is broken.