Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Eail]

"I don't know... I-I'll find something to do, we aren't sure what happens in the dream compared to normal reality, so no risks should be taken!" Luka worriedly said. Without knowing how dying would relate to the real world he was extremely concerned about any injuries that someone could have.

As soon as Ringo touched down on the stands the healer jumped off and rushed over to where the foul mouthed girl had impacted "Arietta are you oka.... oh dear." He trailed off at actually seeing the wound the girl had sustained. Rushing to her side Luka started to observe the wound and try to see just how serious it was... things did not look good. "Umm... gah, what do I do..." He muttered. "Okay, gotta remove the stone then clean and dress the wound. But we don't have anything to clean it with.. oh man... Brace yourself for this... please don't go into shock." Luka uselessly pleaded. Figuring that it would be the best course of action at the moment he took one of Arietta's hands in his own to try to comfort her for what he was about to do "Sorry!" and quickly tugged the piece of stone out of her side.

Not really having any other option for something to use to bind the wound Luka ripped off the sleeve of his own robe with a combination of teeth and tearing, before trying to tie the cloth around the wounded area

[Snike]

As if on cue, the ooze began to speed its' expansion rate and formed a pair of massive hands, challenging the gathering to come meet it.

"Cocky, too, though it sort of has the advantage right now anyways," Blake said, before returning to the other topic. "And I suppose that you're right, Hypnos, that we can't know that you're the man behind the dragon head, but given how much you seem to know about the black ooze and a 'decision' that has to be made, my currently absent money's on you for the time being. As for what I am going to do about it, well, I'd like to ask you a few questions. Namely, what exactly is the decision that needs to be made? Do we need to fight? If so, where would our weaponry be? Any serious answers could help."

***

Someone was in a mood. Fortunately, or otherwise, Fairweather didn't act on it. Grant waited a few moments before following the thunder sage. This was rapidly looking like it was going to be tedious.

[Ether]

"Yeah, let's head over." Faatina replied to Reign in a generic fashion, because generic scenario.

************

And so Luka began mumbling some stuff and eventually took her hand in his own. Before Arietta could ask what in the bloody hell he was doing, the healer pulled the stone shard out of her and began to dress the wound with his torn sleeve.

"What a waste a' time... you shoulda just pulled it straight out, I can take it." Arietta grumbled with regards to the man's earlier fidgeting.

*************

Talky talky rubby rubby~

Kit realized she probably shouldn't be enjoying this quite so much but decided to chalk it up to the form change and not question it because damn it felt good.

[Balcerzak]

When the man in the green cloak had asked him if he still had his weapons, Sinbad had started "Course I have my..." with his hand falling to his holster to demonstrate, but when it met with nothing but air he soon realized the error of that assumption.

"...Errr, right, well, seem to have misplaced my pistol, I guess. I swear I just had it when galloping across the plains right before showing up here, so... That don't seem good. Suppose that means the sword ain't there neither, I reckon. Though that one be more of a last resort, would still be nice to have."

A disturbing thought suddenly struck him, and eyes opening wide, "If he took my chew too, that bastard ain't gonna get of lightly, I tell you what." As he was reaching to find out whether or not he would have to try to kill a phantasmal dragon head, the mage in blue, who had confirmed this was the dream training after all, had gotten a might bit excited by the man having pointed out some other folk down on the ground level of whatever this building were supposed to pass for. As she started leaping down the stairs, a handful at a time, he muttered "Whoa, there," before nodding his head to the man suggesting he follow along, for safety in numbers if nothing else.

That had been his intention from the beginning, after all. Stay in a group, learn how to work with a group. With a few clicks, and some calming pats, he got Hatsune to start gently descending the stairs, and made his way after the pair, though they had a head start and he soon fell fairly far behind them due to his caution. Luckily, they'd paused upon meeting a group of the others at base level, but it seemed hardly a one in the bunch had much store in patience, as one of the fellas started storming off. Sinbad almost fancied he saw thunderclouds circling the man's head. Someone was clearly in an ill temper.

Back on level ground, and able to proceed at a trot, it was much easier to catch up to the group. Pulling alongside of the friendly-seeming, grey-haired man he'd met here initially, he asked, "There a particular reason for all this hurry, or are we just stumbling around in the dark trying to find everyone who got magicked into this with us?"

He may have some additional questions, and possibly even conversation for the rest of the several others present, but for now this was top on his mind. It was probably for the best he had completely forgotten to check whether his tobacco had survived the journey to dreamland.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Phoenix]

Equipping

"You need to decide what you're going to do about that," Hypnos answered Blake, nodding toward the taunting ooze. "You could fight it, but I think it has you at a disadvantage, yes."

"We can't do anything about it without weapons so we need to know where they are," Raquel argued.

"That appears to be pure dark energy; what would your weapons do exactly?" he asked her.

"Er ..." Fail miserably I guess. And attacking magic with magic is pointless even if it's light magic. But how else are we supposed to fight it? Are we even supposed to fight it? "You said we needed weapons if we were going to be out in the arena, though, right? So according to you, we're supposed to be able to fight this stuff somehow."

"You're here for the dragon's challenge, so you'll definitely need weapons for that, but this darkness may only be peripherally related at best. I bet there's more than one way to address it."

"What do we do?! Which 'way' should we deal with this?!"

"You'll need to gather in the arena to begin, I'm sure, so maybe a little negotiation is in order? That or you can simply share the arena with the ooze and ask it not to interfere."

"Ask it ... not to interfere ...? Are you serious? I'd probably have better luck just beating it back with my emblem piece ... well if I even had it."

"You don't?"

"... oh wait a second." When Blake showed up unarmed I just assumed ... Raquel was able to produce an emblem piece from her side and held it out for the others to see. Though that in and of itself was strange, because even though Raquel hadn't noticed this herself, she had actually pulled the emblem out of thin air. The bag she usually kept it in wasn't on her, and her outfit had no pockets to speak of. As it began to glow faintly, she said, "Maybe we can get rid of this stuff. Uh ... I'm not going to actually try to 'beat' it with the emblem, that was just a figure of speech ..." Hypnos simply nodded in acknowledgement.

Flying

Hoping to convince the pegasus to go down to the corridor, the phoenix girl pointed toward it again, leaning forward in the saddle to get her hand as far in front of Rizen's face as she could without crushing Chip or losing her balance. "Mmm," she pleaded all the while.

Arriving

"Hey!" Reign called out to the others once they drew closer to the wyvern crash site. They were still a hundred feet away, but closing. There weren't as many present as he had hoped, but it was a fantastic start to reuniting with the others at the very least.

[Eail]

Luka shook his head while finishing tying the impromptu bandage. "Everyone has their limits, even you. And a chunk of stone in the side is certainly going to push that limit, dream or not. I don't want to risk anything happening in the real world because of this. Besides, the thought of you being hurt at all isn't really that appealing either..."

[Ether]

Faatina continued following Reign because there isn't really anything for her to add.

**********

"I've had worse and came out fine... but thanks for the thought I guess." Arietta replied, crossing her arms across her chest as Luka finished tying the makeshift bandage.

**********

And then the Emblem came out~ Time for observation~

[Snike]

"Great, does anyone speak fluent fluid?" Blake said, in a serious tone. It seemed a little ridiculous that they'd be able to negotiate with the substance, but ridiculous was made feasible by Raquel producing the emblem piece out of thin air. Like, one moment, her hand was empty. The next, full of emblem. Incredible.

"Getting rid of it is the best idea, so, if you can, Raquel, I think you should do it," the swordless swordsman said, crossing his arms. "If not, well, we'd best get moving."

***

"Well, I'm guessing we're just trying to unite everyone, so that we can probably get rid of that stuff," Grant said, pointing towards the arena proper. "And get out of this place, of course, but that's getting ahead of ourselves."

[Mercakete]

As suspected, it had only been a matter of time. Though the communication was awkward at best, Rizen could tell the passenger was trying to point something out. She was leaning, too, and leaning typically meant "go this way." Therefore, the things were that way. Therefore, Rizen flew that way. The predators had already landed on the sloping stones, but it was still good to be going away from them. She was high enough that whatever that black stuff had been was leaving them alone, too. Things were finally looking up!

It didn't take long for Rizen to reach the corridor, though she had to fold in her wings before she could actually enter. Once she was inside, though, there was that male human again who had led her to the passenger. Wait, did they only lead to each other? Rizen sighed as only an equine could and shook her mane and tail in annoyance. She couldn't find the things yet. There was that female human who led the herd, though, and she had something shiny. There was also someone she didn't recognize holding an animal of some sort. Hmm... Did he have something to do with the missing things?

Deciding to investigate, Rizen walked right up to him and stared. If he had the things, now was the time for him to give them back.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Mercakete

[Phoenix]

Corridor

Once Rizen landed, the girl carefully hopped down and then tried to give the pegasus a big hug around the neck while Chip remained in the saddle.

"Chip," Raquel called out, happy that Chip was relatively safe for the time being. It was odd that he didn't have his firearm, but against the darkness amassing in the arena, she doubted it would have done him much good anyway. Chip finally began trying to get down from Rizen, but the fall was a bit high for his taste. He reached out for Raquel who hurried over and accepted him onto her shoulder. "Okay I'm going to try to deal with this dark energy now ..."

"Okay then ... I'll just ... make nice with this pegasus then," Hypnos replied, smiling nervously.

Stands

Once they were close enough to talk normally, Reign slowed to a stop and glanced out at the arena. Almost entirely covered in black, it looked anything but safe. Turning back to the others he asked, "Is this everyone we've found so far?" While waiting for an answer he sat the rock he was carrying down on the bench and took a seat next to it. Aside from a third of the arena entrances, it's a nice view.

Gabbie meanwhile waited around atop Ringo, hoping the others would arrive soon so they could come up with some idea of what to do.

[Mercakete]

The humans were talking with each other again and still the things did not appear. The passenger was hugging her neck now, though. However, she wasn't exactly happy with that, giving an angry snort as she jerked her head away to indicate it. Rizen was getting fed up. The things were still missing in spite of all her efforts and now this female she'd retrieved thought her acquisition entitled her to act so familiarly. The pegasus' patience had just about run out.

[ReformBlade]

"Yeah this place is a bit too big, I must admit. And who's to say the guy just prefers this sort of setting and can't do others?" Moving on to the time flow response, "I'm just curious is all. I mean, I've never really been this supremely cognizant in a dream before, so I'm not really sure what's going to apply here. And if this was a dream, I always figured I'd have some control over it beyond normal physical means, you know? Speaking of that, since I feel so... constricted compared to what I thought it'd be, what if this is a bit more real than we bargained for? What if it carries over when we wake up...?" Her voice trailed off as her face looked nothing short of worried. It was an odd feeling seeing as they hadn't encountered anything lethal beyond the ever looming boredom that surrounded them in he shape of an ever curving hallway, but that thought of what could be just around waiting for her and Shadrak kept making her more and more stressed out.

Holy crap! there's tons of unarmed people here now! "Yay, people! And who says we can't fight? Last I checked I can still throw a punch." Giving some light jabs, "And besides, who said we need to strictly resort to violence to 'fight' anyway? Wars can be won via badass diplomacy and tactics like stealing supplies, cutting off certain roads, selective misinformation... Hell, I'd say fighting is one of the smallest parts in a war, just the most violent and talked about and admittedly tragic part... but still small in terms of raw output in my opinion!" Tangent complete, Aneda smiled that goofy smile.

[Snike]

And so the phoenix-Raquel returned, astride Norbert's pegasus. The girl quickly dismounted and went over to hug the animal, at which point Raquel came over to rescue the other passenger-Chip- from the saddle.

"Good luck," Blake said, as he stood back a bit to see what his employer was going to do.

[Script]

Gar of the Gar's Dream

"As much as I'd like to practice my neck-snapper, I'd feel so much more at home with a knife," Gar commented. "And a shirt too for that matter." Gar traced one of his scars. "But for the most part the latter half of that... words, generally requires an army and stuff."

[roymbrog]

Well Luka was tending to the injured woman who fell off Volga, and Gar had elaborated on the unnamed woman whom Kat could only assume to be Gabbie. More people started showing up, but the whole party wasn’t there yet. Apparently Gar had the idea of keeping a wyvern in the air as a signal but Kat could do one better.

“Ok, you guys can stay here, I’m going to go look for everyone else and lead them back. Hold down the fort, Aneda,” she said, then hopped on Volga and took off before anyone could say anything. Shut up, Katrina’s plans are totally the best.

-----

Well the group of mages, archers, and bitter enemies eventually reached their target of wyvern people. Synthia, hurrying at the front of the pack, caught the tail end of some speech Aneda was giving. She gave the pegasus rider a quizzical look as she walked over. “What about war now?”

-----

Valter was unhappy with the way things were going. It was just ruined hall after ruined hall and he was getting rather sick of it. “There are others somewhere, just… not here, apparently. Really, what was the point of splitting us up like this? I have no idea where we are, but I want to get out of this blasted building.”

Almost as if on cue, the next split in the hallway had one doorway leading outside. The horseman immediately took that one. It came out somewhere at the base of the large coliseum bowl overlooking the arena. The black goo was clearly visible once outside. “What in Truth’s name…”

-----

Katrina had Volga fly low over the stands, hoping to catch others wandering around the edge of the arena. Lo and behold, she saw a horse just walking outside. That had to be someone’s horse, right? The wyvern rider had Volga circle back around and land nearby while she tried to decide what exactly to do with it. Could the wyvern lift a horse?

[Ether]

"Well, standing around here isn't going to do us any good... that look-a-like flew right beneath us..." Faatina noted, as she made her way over to the side of the seating area... there were decent enough footholds, and the ooze was still a decent ways away from the archway below that signified the entrance.

"I'm gonna go see what happened with that pegasus and the Raquel wannabe." She added, before flipping herself over the wall, bracing her right foot into one of the many holes in the surprisingly stable for how beat up it was structure. Making her way down the wall at the most brisk pace she could manage without falling off, she didn't want to take any extra chances with that black goop. Once she had managed to rappel herself to a low enough height as to not break anything by jumping, she jumped the rest of the way down, rolling towards the entrance of the archway to break her fall and open the gap between herself and the strange stuff.

Within said corridor was not only the Raquel clone and the pegasus, but Raquel herself, as well as some strange man in black holding a fox, as well as Blake. Good, this wasn't a waste of time afterall.

"There you are, Raquel. Good to find you." She noted, before craning her head upward towards the others.

"Hey, Raquel is down here!"

********

And so one of Raquel's fighters scaled down the wall and found them, calling up to an as yet undisclosed amount of people that she had been with already. Neat.

"Good luck Raquel~"

[Phoenix]

Came

'Good luck', those were Blake's words to her and now it was up to her how to deal with this ooze. Of course she still wasn't sure what to make of the stuff. It appeared hostile, but no one had actually been harmed by it yet ... harassed, no question, but the lack of persistent attacks left her wondering just how she should approach the situation. For now, she took a few steps forward as the ooze drew closer and held her emblem piece close to her chest while Chip took shelter under her hair.

Eventually she decided to open with a bluff, hoping that would if nothing else help her gauge some things about the dark ooze. She held out the emblem in a threatening manner toward the ooze. "STOP," she demanded. The mass closest to her flinched, began to shift and send out ripples. For the moment, it had at least stopped flowing closer. Umm ... what now? Unsure how to follow up, she said, "G-go away now, okay?" There was simply more of the same from the oozing darkness, but for the moment it still wasn't getting any closer.

Meanwhile, Luca arrived at the end of the hall he'd taken and came out onto the stands. This place was far larger than he imagined, and his resolve began to fade somewhat. The sky was like nothing he'd ever seen before, and he'd lost all sense of normalcy. Snorting in confusion, he began stomping in place uncomfortably. He saw some humans and animals in sight a great distance away, but was too upset to deal with it at the moment. What he would have to deal with soon was a wyvern, apparently ... a big one. Luca stopped pouting and took a few steps back toward the hallway. If the wyvern wanted a snack, it came to the wrong whatever the apples this place was!

Faatina decided to go over the wall for some reason. Reign would have objected if he had the time, but she had made her way over before he noticed what she was doing. He still stood up and headed to the edge to make sure she hadn't fallen into the ooze and got off a teasing, "Maybe use the stairs next time?" before she reached the bottom.

Saw

"Faatina?" was Raquel's initial reaction when the sancturan woman dropped down into the corridor from the stands above. "Where did you come from? And why are you wearing a Reign's ... never mind, it's a dream, you probably just woke up in it."

"Discoveryyyy, we have an issue," Hypnos politely chimed in, hinting at the ooze, which was now on the move again.

"Gah! Faatina, get back! I'm going to ... try to ... deal with this stuff." She quickly held out the emblem again hoping to halt the ooze, and while that worked, she received a very unusual taunt in reply. Another hand spawned from the darkness and pulled a rock from the ground with it. It held it out in an imposing manner the same as Raquel. "... what ...?"

Elsewhere, Mushirah and Shadrak continued their walk and talk. "I'm guessing the reason we don't have more control is because then things would be too easy ... and maybe this dragon head has enough sense to try and simulate something relatively close to reality ... otherwise I doubt we'll really come out of this any better off than we were before. I am worried about getting injured in this place, but I keep telling myself that to wake up with a huge hole in my chest requires someone in the real world to actually come up and stab me in my sleep. It's hard to imagine an injury hear suddenly appearing on us in the real world. Of course now that I mention that stabbing thing, I'm a little worried for other reasons. I mean there's Colin, Gabriella if she didn't fall asleep ... urgh, not going to go there."

Colin and Chelsea continued through the halls, but Colin had to stop when he saw a turn leading into the arena. "Hey hey, hold up," he requested. "Maybe we should take a look further in. Down there I mean."

Conquered

"Stop mocking us," Raquel yelled at the hand. The hand responded by rearing back and throwing the rock at her, which by scale was almost larger than she was. It came barreling in at high speed and she barely had time to get out of the way as it flew by and crashed somewhere down the corridor. Raquel carefully picked herself up off the ground and shook her head. Dives were way more painful than she expected and Chip was dazed by the maneuver but otherwise alright.

"Well it's certainly hostile now ..." Hypnos commented.

"Uuuurgh. Okay it's time to fight back then. I'm not getting crushed by a rock in my dreams too, darnit!" Raquel stepped forward again and prepared to do ... something. What, she wasn't quite sure. Maybe I can ward it off? No that wouldn't really help us. It would only give us room to move around, and it would eventually come back. I need to disperse this stuff entirely somehow ... like with a ... huge explosion or something. Can the emblem do that? Well I guess in my dreams it could. Alright then, I'll blow it away! "That was the last straw, you!"

Another hand formed and began performing the same two handed taunt they saw earlier, and the eerie cackling resumed.

"JUST GO AWAAAAAY!!!" Raquel held out the emblem hoping it would simply destroy the ooze but nothing happened. "Darnit, work work work work work-"

"Discovery ... if you want it to work, you need to shut everything else out."

"E-everything?"

"Everything."

"Errrrrr-ccccome on ... wooooork!" The ooze began to close in. Five seconds and this would be resolved one way or the other. "W-why isn't it working ...?! Oh no ..." Raquel began to panic as the two hands came in to grab her. "Hypnos ..."

"Grrrr, I can't help you!" That was Hypnos' scolding to her surprise.

And in that moment, her mind blanked, and an intense enormous golden light came forth. Most of the light was directed in front of and away from Raquel, but it was still too bright to look at. From farther away, an enormous golden beam could be seen tearing through the arena grounds and the ooze. It wasn't causing any collateral damage, but the ooze was being rapidly destabilized by it and was either dissolving or taking on a vaporous form and rising into the air away from the beam.

Luca was scared by the intense light and backed even farther back into the hall. Meanwhile, Reign was a bit too close to the source to get away completely unscathed. He stumbled back into his seat from the edge of the wall when the light appeared. "Argh, my eyes! Arrrrgh, not good ... so not good ..."

Gabbie and Ringo didn't get off easily either since both were keeping an eye on the arena grounds. When the light came, Ringo looked away, but the damage was done, and Gabbie tried her best to shield her eyes but was also caught completely off guard. "Fuck," she yelled, nearly falling off of Ringo.

When the beam vanished, the ooze had been almost completely evaporated and was mingled with smoke coming off of the path taken by the golden light. Raquel stood at the edge of the corridor shocked, amazed, and a little dazed. "wha- ... what just ..."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika quietly followed the horse, who appeared to be leading them towards...some kind of arena? She didn't get a very good look at it before there was an intense light that caused her to avert her eyes.

"Well this seems to be something. Ready yourself," she warned Gytha before reaching for the sword on her belt. The still non-existent sword. <"Son of a bitch,"> she muttered to herself.

Nadya

"Let's not go anywhere near that shit," Nadya advised Valter and Bert, from when out of nowhere a golden beam appeared to disintegrate the ooze. Well now she couldn't see, with no weapons, and no horse, so Nadya decided to head back the way she came. "The old hallways seemed a hell of a lot safer!" she remarked, blindly retreating.

[Script]

Blinded by the Gar

"Gah!" Gar unleashed when a beam of light emerged somewhere nearby and blinded him. he gripped at his eyes but kept himself rooted in place. Bloody hell! His time working in the dark had prepared him for times similar to this, but it was still bloody annoying. And--oh wait it couldn't be permanent because none of it was real. Still, it was a pain in the ass! "I highly suggest anyone as blind as I've just become stay still. Can anyone still see?"

[Ether]

The ooze quickly began to assault Raquel and close in on her soon after Faatina landed... not that there was really anything she could do about it... her first instinct was to try and grab the merchant, who was standing her ground for some reason, and make a run for it. Of course, midway through this course of action, a sudden flash of golden light erupted from the object in Raquel's hand... that was all Faatina could register as an immense pain erupted in her head.

Stumbling blindly forward clutching at her eyes was all the woman could manage, before the loss of balance combined with prior noted temporary blindness caused her to fall over, most likely right in front of Raquel, but she had no way to be certain.

********

Arietta managed to avoid the worst of it... she had been looking away from the arena when it happened, but even she could see the light reflect on the wall in front of her. Turning around, several people seemed to be reeling, which prompted a not so unexpected response.

"What in the bloody hell was that?!"

********

Kit had managed to avoid taking the blast quite so bad... the dark energy she had readied to attempt to blast the ooze away wasn't quite formed to shield her eyes, but it did the job decently well, and Kit's vision was... there, if not blurred.

"That was interesting." She muttered, eyes focused on Raquel to see what would happen next.

[Mercakete]

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Norbert mumbled in response to Valter's reaction to the scene that displayed its self before them. He couldn't help but just stare at it and try to figure out what he was seeing. Nadya suggested they keep away from...whatever that...black stuff was...

Though, the scene didn't remain the same for long as a beam of intense light shot through the arena and filled the gaze of any who might've been looking in that direction. The sudden light was incredibly bright. In fact, bright enough to make Norbert's eyes hurt remarkably.

"AGHH! Ugh! WHAT?!" The pegasus rider immediately recoiled and covered his eyes at the blast of light, but by then his vision was gone. "Blast it! Augh, my eyes!"

Nadya sounded like she was retreating, but he really didn't know how good an idea that was. Still, the prevailing emotion was anger caused by both the blindness and the pain. "Nadya, wait! Can you even see? I'm not stumbling around some crumbling corridor without knowing someone still has their vision!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gytha had been looking around the arena as soon as it came into view. It sure looked like Purgatory had. Not only that but there was some strange, black monster down below from the looks of things. Well, actually, that only lasted a short while since there was this giant blast of light. Then, she couldn't see anymore. Well.

Veronika suggested she ready herself, but Gytha really wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Her head hurt and now she couldn't see. "By Leviathan..." she muttered before more clearly asking, "How'm I supposed t' ready meself, n' fer what? I can't see anathin'... Don't have me weapons on me either." I just hope we don't have t' fight like this...

[-Cynthia-]

Nadya

"I dunno what's goin' on in there and I'm not curious enough to find out," Nadya responded to Norbert, still stumbling backwards.

Veronika

"Once you can see, punch anything that looks like an enemy," Veronika suggested. She didn't think this advice was particularly profound, but it was better than nothing. She steeled herself and stepped past the horse in the hallway, surveying the stands. Seems like most of the others are here too...is this a battle going on?

[Phoenix]

For I Was Not Blind But Now I Can't See

"Sight! Gone!" Reign said this in response to Gar while feeling around for his rock. Any security he could get, he supposed ...

"Oh don't worry; I'm not going anywhere," Gabbie called back. "But yeah ... blasted loight got me too!" She knelt forward to try and see if Ringo was alright. "Hey," she said softly to her wyvern. "You alroight?" she asked as she felt around for his head and then stroked it a few times.

Arena Get

Down in the corridor, Raquel knelt down to see if Faatina was okay while Hypnos sighed in relief. "Overcoming one's basic instincts takes quite a bit of work. That was a close one," he said, mostly musings.

"Faatina, are you alright? I'm sorry about that light. I had no idea it would be anything like that ..."

The phoenix girl, having noticed the arena was returning to some semblance of normal, ran out to experience it up close. The strange oppressive ooze was seeping into the ground or evaporating, so she felt safe and was happy to have the arena to herself and her potential friends.

[ReformBlade]

"What's wrong with Colin and Gabriella?" was her first inquiry but was abruptly interrupted by a whole lot of shenanigans, including but possibly not limited to bright lights and what felt like tremors to the girl. First instinct was to drop down and cover her head, but the brightness that poured through the cracks in the wall certainly didn't help her calm down. "What the hell?! Is there a friggin sun out there now?!"

"No, Kat, splitting up is dumb!" she warned, apparently reaching deaf ears as Kat went on. Perhaps she had an amazing plan but leaving responsibility to Aneda wasn't going to end well, and when the whole place illuminated like a cart of fireworks going off all at once, Aneda went blind for who knows how long, literally in pain trying to keep her eyes open and seeing only brightness and the lovely color red. Having to fight back the tears, Aneda did the only thing she could, which was complain, "Ho-ly SHIT! What just fucking happened?!" dropping to her knees and holding her face for comfort.

[roymbrog]

“…What is she doing?” Synthia had asked as Tina went over the wall. She got her answer shortly, when the girl yelled from below that she had found Raquel. Unfortunately for her, the mage was still looking in that direction when the beam of light erupted across the arena.

Desperately trying to cover her eyes, she stumbled backwards into whoever happened to be behind her at the time. “Ack! I can’t see either! Someone tell me what the fuck that was?”

-----

Valter hadn't been looking directly at the arena, instead glancing around the stands, so he didn't sufer the worst of the flash. The arm thrown hastily over his eyes had helped too. Everything was out of focus and spots danced across his vision, but at least he could somewhat see. The most important thing was that where there had once been black goo there was a distinct lack of darkness. "Hold on, don't go back inside yet! I think whatever just happened destroyed the black stuff."

-----

Katrina had her back to the lightshow completely, so the damage to her eyes was minimal at best. "Woah, what was that?! Um..." Volga hadn't fared so well, poor wyvern. Kat wasn't going to make her walk around half blind, so hopped off to approach Gytha and Veronika. "Hey, it's a friend here. Once the blindness wears off I can show yo to the others, yeah?"