middaeg | [OPEN]

Entry tags:

[OPEN]

Who: Hubert and open; some close prompts
When: Throughout Juril
Where: Aefenglom, Dorchacht, Outpost, Underground
What: Open event and quest prompts + closed prompts
Warnings: added as needed

Juril 5th - The Eclipse

[Hubert normally avoided the Full Moons. That he would walk the streets in the dead of night, particularly as the unusual revelry set upon the city marked something as odd.]

[And not only that, but gone was his overly stuff and prim appearance. No cloak, no coat, no gloves, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and (gasp) the button of his collar undone. And if one looked closely, a little face peered warily out from his undone collar, skittishly observing the impromptu songs and laughter (and the occasion fight) of the Eclipse-drunk townfolk.]

[Hubert himself seemed relatively together, if... uncharacteristically relaxed as he bounces a small vial of glimmering powder in his palm, his other hand toting a small paper-wrapped parcel. And any time a citizen tried to engage with him, a piercing shriek soon followed as a small black scorpion seemed to land on their shoulder out of nowhere. Hubert only keeps walking as they flailed about, laughing to himself.]

Wonderous Things - Dorchacht - pre-midmonth event

[He's only here to do a job. Harvesting the Whispering Cloud reeds isn't hard. The Witch keeps to himself as the reeds talk, collecting them with a hand sickle, seemingly indifferent to their chatter.]

(I hear he's a killer. That one like scaring people. He doesn't want people to know he cares. Did you know that one put down his old man?)

[There's only one that makes Hubert stiffen suddenly.]

(Wait until you hear he's afraid of heights.)

Suspicious Activity - Aefenglom - pre-midmonth event

[He's tall. He's sinister. He wears entirely too much black. He skulks around at all times of night. And thanks to the scattered early thunderstorms, he's sporting a hooded cloak. If you want to mistake Hubert for one of the purity cultists, go ahead!]

Fire pixies - Aefenglom - 18th-22nd

[A cool, thick fog settles over patches of the residential areas at times.]

[It's only conjured, and still burns off quicker than it would otherwise, but it provides brief relief, buys more time for plants and fire-prone buildings, and some protection for daylight sensitive Monsters. And it makes the unwanted pests stand out like bright lanterns as their light catches on the mist.]

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"Left flank!"

Hubert has to scream it over the sudden howl of the wind, and if it weren't for a vampire's sharper hearing, he would've doubted his success of warning Edelgard about the frost elemental re-materializing by her side. Hubert's shadow-born warhorse managed to fight through the snow more effective than he could on foot; even with that boon, the it couldn't trudge the distance in time to do anything about the persistent elemental.

Little spheres of flame hovered about Hubert and Edelgard both, an additional precaution to stay warm amid the unusually fierce blizzard. Two squat earth golems flanked him, each burning internally like coals, and one started melting a path through the drift towards the Emperor now that the smaller frost elementals were dealt with.

The freak blizzard was centered around the elder frost elemental. If they could just bring the damned thing down, the storm about the Ruins should subside...

[Corrin didn't really care for the idea of killing the little creatures, given that they could seemingly talk, even if no one could understand them. But she understood that they were causing far too many problems to be ignored, which was why she'd tagged along with Hubert. She had her yato in one hand, and an iron-ringed leather bag hanging off her shoulder.]

Nice trick.

[She said, her voice chipper, as the fog settled down around them. She might have complained that it made it hard to see, except, well, the pixies really did show up like fireflies against the wet air.]

[She brought her sword out in front of her and rested her hand on the flat of the blade, whispering a spell. A cool blue glow flowed out from her palm and down the metal, wreathing it in a shimmering blue aura that radiated cold.]

[She was grinning as she lifted it back up, watching some of the water droplets in the air freeze up and drop to the ground like short-lived hail as the blade touched the fog.]

We each have our strengths.

[Conjuration at times required indirect solutions, though that wasn't something Hubert minded. It suited his manner of operation well. He wasn't surprised that enchantment seemed just as suited to Corrin.]

[Hubert knelt and began drawing a magic circle, a faint purple line following the wake of his finger.]

You'll be mindful of the beetles' dying flames, I trust?

I have an idea about that.

[Corrin reassured him, even as she stepped out of where he was tracing his circle, her red eyes focused on one of the shimmering balls of light in the fog that indicated where one of the pixies was.]

[Suddenly she stepped forward and turned the blade in her hand swinging the flat of it to swat the pixie off of her mount. The little creature let out a startled shriek as it was knocked to the ground. And then Corrin turned and pressed the blade against the beetle. There was a shimmer of light as the enchantment on the sword grew brighter, and then ice swirled around the beetle, encasing it before it dropped to the ground with a clink.]

[Corrin immediately jumped back away from it when it did though. Hopefully it wouldn't explode when it was frozen but...]

[Hubert glanced up long enough to watch. The frozen beetle hissed for a second, followed by a cracking sound and a pff as it burst into a little steam cloud.]

[Still unwise to stand next to, perhaps, but far less dangerous, especially to the surroundings.]

[Hubert made an acknowledging noise as he turned his attention back to completing the circle. A push of magic lit it up—and in a flash an eagle made of darker mist soared out to circle over head.]

Preferable to the alternative. [A different gesture and murmured word cases the cobbles of the street to shift slightly and swallow the grounded pixie, which had been angrily cursing Corrin out—presumably, at least.]

Work quickly. This mist is more difficult to create in this heat, and I do not believe I'll manage many more of them today.

[The shadow-eagle over head swooped another bright spot in the mist, diving back towards Corrin with a distressed pixie in its talons, luring the beetle closer to the princess as it gave chase.]

[Corrin let out a relieved sigh when the beetle didn't burst into an ice grenade or anything. Steam she could deal with. She turned towards the pixie on the ground in time to watch it vanish into the stones and winced faintly.]

I was just going to put them in the bag.

[She said, indicating the leather bag she had over her shoulder. Corrin was such a softy, after all.]

[As the next beetle was driven towards her, she swatted it out of the air with her sword, again the burst of ice energy encasing the little creature, but this time knocking it far enough away that when it hissed into steam it wasn't a danger to anyone.]

[That earned Corrin a look. Exasperation pre-emptively rose in Hubert's chest, but he kept it in check and removed from his voice. For the moment.]

[The eagle, at least, starts gliding a lazy circle around Corrin, its captive still in its clutch.]

For what end?

[He'll give her the benefit of the doubt of an honest question.]

[Corrin raised her free hand towards the bird to see if it would give her the pixie, even as she shrugged at Hubert.]

I don't know. I guess I thought I would let them go next time I was a decent distance from the city?

[How much damage could they do out in the wild, anyway?]

[The conjuration did as asked by Corrin's gesture, taking off into the fog again once unburdened.]

[Meanwhile, Hubert's expression drew into what is surely a familiar unimpressed line by now. He wants to like you, Corrin, he really does.]

And I should hope the leather does not incinerate in the processes, putting so many of the creatures in proximity.

[Corrin frowned at the squirming little pixie in her hand. Hrm.]

Oh! That I thought of. [And she was proud of herself.] I enchanted the bag, it's always wet inside. So it shouldn't burn.

[Of course, it would probably kill the pixies but she didn't know that...]

...

[For a moment, Hubert didn't know what to say. He very nearly started to point out the flaw in her plan, but instead turned his attention back to directing his conjured eagle. Another capture, another baited beetle.]

[Let Corrin have her unwitting pixie death-trap. It served his ends just fine.]

...Very well. If you insist on it, I will bring them to you.

Edited 2020-07-26 23:08 (UTC)

Edelgard didn't respond audibly. That was just going to get her hurt, if not killed. One didn't survive the number of violent confrontations they had by talking through them. Chatterboxes died, and she survived.

The frigid elemental shifted its arm to attack but Aymr was already buried in its midsection, the axe sweeping through to her left the instant she registered Hubert's warning. It buzzed, shimmered, beginning to spray out shards of ice that had her jumping back before she realized it was bleeding. Or, bleeding as much as these creatures ever do.

"Finish it if you can!"

[Corrin smiled gratefully at him, luckily unaware of his thoughts.]

Thanks, Hubert.

[Sure, they didn't get along at all, but he wasn't completely awful? She opened the bag enough to drop the pixie inside and closed it up again, then turned and lifted her sword to swat the next beetle out of the air, once more turning into an iceball that bounced away to burst into steam.]

It's strange how many of them there are, right?

Hubert forced his cold-numb hands to move, tracing shapes as quickly as they could. Fire evocation had too much snow to contend with, and acid would likely freeze; he settled for the quickest conjuration he could think of, raining half a dozen head-sized rocks on the elemental—solid salt blocks, actually.

Gravity granted them enough force to tear chunks off of the frost-being, one crystal taking off an arm entirely and another smashing clean through what would've been its chest.

"Wonderful."

Edelgard whirls to cleave it in half once he hits it with the salt, thinking to herself about how clever her was at that. It falls to pieces beneath the two, and she whirls.

"Hubert, duck!"

He could scarcely hear or see Edelgard in the blizzard, but between what he could glean from both senses the message carries through—and just as Edelgard had reacted instantly to his warning, so does he without question.

He yanks the reins of his conjured beast down hard; the warhorse drops into a kneel so suddenly it might have broken a real horse's leg and Hubert throws himself as low against its neck as he could. The small burning rock golem still nearby whirls about to try and protect its summoner against the threat.

She flicks out a dagger as he moves out of the way. A quick, sharp, impossibly strong throw that pegs another ice elemental hard enough to send it tumbling. Then she's leaping, vaulting clear of the snow and over Hubert and his horse.

"BEGONE!" she roars as she brings down her axe on the elemental, splitting it in half. With a savage sweep, she quarters the thing and whirls back to Hubert.

"Do you see more?"

He could, in fact, hardly see anything, half-blind in the blizzard he was. Hubert shakes the snow build-up from the back of his hood as his warhorse struggles back to its feet.

Before he could answer, still faced away, his magical senses feel that singular instant of materialization, and Hubert whirls around on his staggering horse with a shout of warning.

The fire golem, closer, gets there first, the stout little construct ramming into Edelgard's hip in an effort to shove her out of the way of an elemental's sweeping sickle-like arm.

It does a good job of it. The little construct hits her and sends her tumbling back, enough so that it turns the blow. The arm cuts into her, slicing through the warm winter clothes she had been wearing and tearing a scarlet gash in her side instead of her stomach. Unfortunately she hadn't come out here in her armor, since the metal wouldn't have worked well in all this cold, so there's nothing to protect her skin.

With a guttural snarl, she whirls and cleaves the offending elemental in half, sending its icy body flying into two chunks that vanish in a snowdrift.

"Thank you!" she calls out, breathing heavily and shambling closer to his horse. "It's not bad."

Very predictably, distress lances through the Bond anyway. The angle and weather obscure the wound from him and Hubert's mind runs through the worst possibilities first.

"That is no reason to press our luck," he calls back over the wind steadily, despite the worry bouncing underneath. "The storm should weaken without the eldest to anchor it."

Hubert is subtly trying to crane his head for a better look, even knowing it would get him nowhere, and warily watching her unsteady step. The golem by Edelgard sticks close as it waddles in her wake. "The ruins could provide shelter until it does."

[...Hubert is being extra creepy it seems. From scorpion pranks and shrieks to his scary laugh. Of course, there's one who isn't scared. Partially because she's gotten past that and partially because...]

Dust!

[Okay, she's not feeling as energetic but she can whip it up just to bounce a little at his feet to try and see her rat friend.

...Priorities?]

"Then, lead the way."

Edelgard holds her hand over the injury, and it comes away wet with old blood. Nothing so bad, but she was definitely going to need the vials in her pouch to recover quickly.

"I'm fine, Hubert. I just need to sit and get to my pouch. Unless you've a healing spell, that's the best we can do. It isn't a deadly cut, it missed anything vital."

[Goddess, it was just like dealing with Caspar. "Not completely awful" was a step up, at least. The shadow bird dives again.]

If these creatures are as related to insects as they appear to be, it's not surprising to find them in mass number. The same as any pest, I suppose.

The golem lingering by Hubert begins to march and melt them a path. Hubert nudges his horse to walk. That healing wasn't among his skill-set despite his specialty in conjuration was a frustration for him; Hubert could only guess that was because he held too strong an association with the faith magic of Fódlan still, and it impeded his learning somehow.

He notes to himself to devote time to working around that, later.

"I see."

Hubert glances around, whatever little good it would do, as they follow the golem's path. He didn't see any more of the troublesome frost creatures, but that wasn't saying much. The eerie silence of the ruins somehow seemed worse without the upset ghosts, for reasons Hubert couldn't fathom.

He wasn't picky about the shelter. The first brick building with four walls and an intact roof is the one he settled for, dismounting by the doorless threshold. Whatever fire had ravaged the town left it without anything resembling furniture, but the inside was as clean as one could expect in these conditions; the golems piled in, their heat far more obvious once sheltered from the worst of the wind and snow.

[Dust is a very important priority, and a strange night like this might be the only time Hubert would agree out loud. Hubert smiles at the familiar squeal, a fondness floating in the Bond as he glances down at the Fae. Dust's head pokes out a fraction farther, but she still doesn't leave the safety of Hubert's collar.]

Ah, Bernadetta. Good evening. Let's find somewhere quieter; I doubt she'll come out to greet you in a crowd like this.

[He knew what those priorities exactly were.]

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[OPEN]

Edelgard

Fire Pixie Burning Bright...

Oblivious to their impending smite

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The Eclipse

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