Saltwater Thief

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

Now the sound was shifting about. First from his left, then his right, behind him, above him, back to his right... it never stayed in the save direction for long. And soon it grew more elaborate; not just a creaking ship, but a soft evening airstream blowing past, and the distant call of birds as they soared on it. It was so enticing, but he knew that was what base it dangerous. Anything like that just had to be a baited line.

And on the subject of lines, it seemed he was one of the last ones to join the group's. He placed his hand on Christopher's shoulder, and shortly after felt Katalina's hand on his. His other hand, meanwhile, had only tightened it's grip on the knife. But he hadn't drawn it. Not just yet...

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Yeah, I've had a lot going on. Holidays, some heavy work scheduling, and some personal stuff interfered a bit with my ability to post. I'll get one in tomorrow and we'll go from there.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

I can get a post out this weekend. It's been a hard week at home, truth be told.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Hmm. I may be overthinking things, but I'm sitting here trying to draw meaning from the colored letters in Entity's speech xD

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

Alexander watched and waited. And he continued to do so, until the lack of anything became unnerving. At that point he threw his gaze directly toward where he had seen the figure- only to discover that it wasn't there anymore. Great, he thought, so it's either gone and not a concern anymore, or it can move around undetected at will and is a greater concern. He was soon distracted, however, by a familiar creaking noise that made his heart ache.

"Did anybody else hear that?" he asked with a slight bewilderment. Ships meant home, but they also meant people, and a good many of them housed crews that they would NOT want to meet with right now.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Aria Phoenis

Aria had never liked Pinatas, not since one of her birthday parties had featured one that fell off its string and onto her 4 year old head. And now that this monster was imitating one that could fire its spikes at them, her dislike of the things was only reinforced. She leaped backwards again, swinging her sword to swat away spikes she could reach in time, and then dodging away from the ones she couldn't. The others who had gathered were trying to subdue it a little while avoiding the onslaught, but they would need something decisive to finish the job. In a moment created by the chain wrap she looked down at the feathers hoping to find three of them, but only two were lit and the third could easily take far too long to build.

And then she recalled the girl with the mismatched eyes.

Moving quickly, Aria found where Torami was and dashed to her side. She slammed her sword into the ground in front of her, then threw her arms out in front of her to call up a much larger, much thicker barrier of fire than she'd been summoning before to surround both her and the other young lady. "Do whatever you need to do," she called behind her as spike after spike either stopped at the flames or was brushed aside by their rage, "I'll make sure it doesn't- AH!" One of the spikes had managed to penetrate the barrier and clipped her shoulder. She kept her footing however, and redoubled her focus on making the wall last. "I'll make sure it doesn't get a chance to stop you!" she finished, smiling despite one of her eyes being half closed in pain.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Yeah, go for it Stalfos. I can use the Overdrive another time, and in the meanwhile let me see here...

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

Alexander's eyes were pretty good. Usually. When he was actively looking for things and paying attention to his surroundings. And over time he'd learned to trust his senses as well as his instincts. So, when guys eyes told him there was something just to Astrid's right side and his instincts told him it was not a something but a someone, he immediately started digging figuring out what to do about it.

For a start, he would have to be careful; Astrid was still concentrating, and a sudden move on his part could disrupt her easily. That was a no go, especially when this attempt seemed to be going so much better. Subterfuge it was then. Subterfuge he could do, even though it wasn't as flashy as he usually liked. He started circling around toward that area, slowly and quietly. He threw his gaze around to each corner, but every so often he'd steal a glance back to where he'd seen the figure, until he was practically right on top of it. Or so he guessed. Alexander couldn't very well see it, and he had to assume it could see him, but this way if it tried anything it would have to first go past him. Which, if he did things right, wouldn't go well for whatever the thing had in mind.

"That way sounds good to me," he said in reply, "Ladies first."

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Alexander

For a while, nothing happened. Then nothing continued to happen. And after a little bit more uneventfulness, along with some looks of concern and frustration among those present, it became pretty clear that whatever Astrid had been attempting hadn't worked. The way she'd been drawing the symbols on the ground certainly gave the impression that she knew what she'd been doing, and nothing he could see looked out of place- not that he really knew of course, but it all seemed organized enough. Which meant the fault probably wasn't in what she'd done.

That, in his mind, meant one of two things. Either Astrid had been at odds with the place itself, or something had interfered and wanted her to not succeed. And whichever of those it happened to be, it was entirely possible that something would use her attempt to find them and make things messy. He turned about more often while she tried again, keeping his eyes even more alert than before, and all the while he kept a hand on his knife.

UNFAIR MONSTERS [Spots Open]

Aria Phoenis

Just as Aria began to lose her footing, a voice shouted at her to not move as the monster suddenly released its pressure. Knowing that such things are rarely said without good reason, she resisted the urge to jump away and planted her feet as a series of... were those paint lines? Whatever they were, they did some real damage as they tore into the creature's torso. It looked like that was a weak point.

"Thanks for that," she said aloud, "We need to kill this thing, and fast!"

The beast quickly recovered however, burrowing deep underground before emerging and attempting to take pieces out of one of the other people that came to help with his chain weapons. He sprang away, but the beast continued to roll toward him as a spiked ball of death. Another newcomer, this one firing energy blasts from her eye and hand, made to slow the Razorback with fire, and Aria was quick to follow suit. She broke into a run as another "feather" ignited on her sword, but rather than brandish the blade she called another barrier around herself as she threw herself into a shoulder tackle, followed by a heated slash to where she suspected its exposed gut lay within the sphere!