[open] on rocks i dreamt of where we stepped

[scowlish]

Who: onni hotakainen; open
When: throughout aguril
Where: various
What: catch-all and quests for the month
Warnings: tba in subject lines



Prompts in the comments, marked open or closed. Hit me up by PM, discord (coffee #6251), plurk (caffemisto), or with a comment on my cr meme post if you want a specialized starter or to plot in advance!

I'm writing prompts in brackets style but if you prefer prose feel free, I'll respond in kind.

Prompt Links.

i. building supplies: scavenging wood to build a sauna, various places in the city

ii. picnic serenades: wandering in the gardens, offering to play music for picnickers

iii. out of the city: general medical care and fighting in the outer city

Comments

[piromare]

( lio has a moment or two to admire onni's attacks. how his movements are precise, how there's no wasted movements. surely they're practiced, and it makes lio feel suddenly very... unpolished. that despite having his sword, wings, and even his talons, he's going to have to train harder so that every decision he makes with his body that he won't be caught off-guard again.

though having thought that, he spins with the medium-sized blade, catching the still moving monster with the arrow through its head and taking a few more stabs at it to make sure it's down. granted it's not meant for thrusting and more for slicing, but it does the job.

another one comes, but this time lio is ready. he jumps up into the air, dodging another charge, but comes down on top of it with his weapon aimed toward the ground.

the noise it makes is a mixture of a grunt, a croak, and a hiss. )

[scowlish]

[Frankly, Onni couldn't care less if he's fighting with someone who's polished, just as long as he's effective, and Lio is certainly that. He wouldn't even really consider himself polished, but rather driven by necessity and muscle memory from practice. If you can't protect yourself, there's no point in ever leaving the safety of a city, and he'd made sure he could take care of himself before he left his.

All his focus is on the creature he's fighting now, though, which lunges around with a surprising speed considering how much shadow-blood it's oozing, or leaking, or whatever one might call it. It spins and then jerks toward him, swaying drunkenly on its feet and making an inhuman growling sort of noise. With a startled little yelp, Onni moves backward, breathing fast and shallow as the adrenaline really starts to pump. But as he moves, his foot catches against a rock and he goes down hard and ungraceful, with another little noise of distress.

Lifting both arms, he closes his hands around the hilt of the dagger, and blindly jams it forward into the shade that's collapsing down onto him, its body heavy.]

Lio-!

[It's not a scream, it's barely even a shout, but it's most definitely a call for help.]

[piromare]

( his stomach drops. nausea strikes him before anything else, the call for help echoing in his ears. onni isn't loud, but he doesn't have to be: his eyes are already on him even before he hits the ground. it all hits him at once, and his feet are already pushing him forward. his wings spread just enough so that he can use them, just a little, to give him a boost.

he won't draw his sword. lio has talons. claws. but most of all? he has momentum. crashing into the shade, he uses all of his might to shove it off and away from onni. with a grunt, the harpy definitely feels something in his shoulder twinge. something not good. it doesn't matter though.

and once the shade is down? he stomps. hard. over and over. those talons on his birdy legs are sharp and relentless. he doesn't stop even as the shadows flicker away and all he's doing is pounding dust and dirt. the dagger lies on the ground, trembling.

not elegant, but. it does the job. )

[scowlish]

[For a split second, Onni is terrified out of his mind, shoving at the thing on top of him, slamming his knees upward and kicking, trying desperately to get the thing off of him, making little guttural noises of terror.

And then Lio is slamming into the thing, knocking it off of him and he rolls over, gets to his hands and knees, glances over to the side and watches as Lio stomps his feet into the creature's body and head over and over, his talons dealing devastating damage. Stomping and kicking until the thing is well beyond dead. Crouching in the dust, eyes wide, chest rising and falling heavily with fear, he watches as Lio decimates the creature, then looks around, scanning the area for more of them.

Abruptly, his stomach starts churning, and he lifts a hand to yank off his mask so he can throw up into the dust. After he's done, he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and pulls the mask back into place.]

It's done.

[His voice is hoarse from throwing up.]

[piromare]

( the pent up anger and hatred subsiding, lio turns sharply on his heels, only to be greeted by the other's needing to empty his stomach. no matter, lio understands. it doesn't matter how experienced or prepared someone is, a moment like that... he's had too many of those in his life. so he can sympathize as he takes a knee by onni, protectively draping a wing over the human. )

Mhm. ( a soft noise. ) You're not hurt, right?

( lio's sharp eyes don't see anything, but he rather hear it from onni: hoarse voice or not. )

I'm sorry. I hate them so much. It's... disgusting. I wish I had my fire here, it'd probably make quick work of them.

( and then he stands, offering a hand. )

I don't think there are any others left. That, or they found somewhere else to go. They're opportunistic.

[scowlish]

[For a moment, Onni stays still, breathing heavily as he tries to relax himself, but he still startles a little when the wind blows and some tree branches sway, their dark outlines vivid against the sky behind them. Lio asks if he's hurt, and he shakes his head.]

No. I'm fine. It just caught me off-guard.

[It's obvious that it terrified him, the adrenaline is still pounding through his veins, but that isn't something that you talk about, not really. Reaching up, he takes Lio's hand and gets to his feet, still breathing heavily.]

There's no need to apologize. And if it makes you feel better to burn them, I think I have a spell that could do the job.

[piromare]

( steadying onni, he knows. he can feel that fear, that anxiety that comes from the unknown. even though lio's seen enough of the cwyld, it still shakes him to his core. the idea of being corrupted, becoming a literal shade of one's self... it makes him wary. without his fire, he couldn't purify himself. no, it would take a long time to recover if an injury from one was sustained and thus he rather hide in the sky--- keep his distance if he can.

but with others, he's found his courage again. )

Yeah. Do that.

( getting to see fire also would help. )

[scowlish]

[A part of Onni would certainly prefer to be flying right now. In the dream realm he'd always felt a bit safer when he had wings, his body smaller and using less energy so he could heal more quickly, able to jump up and fly away at a moment's notice, far above the water where the monsters lay waiting.

At least he still has some form of magic. Standing still, he takes long deep breaths, even, trying to keep himself calm.]

Alright.

[Without another word, he starts chanting, his voice low and even and rhythmic as he speaks a poetic plea to his luonto and his desire to be clean and free of these creatures. The fire builds between his hands and he pushes it toward the creatures' bodies, still chanting, his eyes hot as he looks at them.]

[piromare]

( much like the flames themselves, lio's smile starts small at first and grows. if he didn't have a symbiotic relationship with an alien that provided him control over fire and immunity to it, maybe he wouldn't be able to appreciate what he sees. the burning of something, the purifying of something. the heat and crackle, the color and light. )

What is fire to you?

( because there's a weight to those words. the chanting that spills from onni. it's meaningful. and onni up to this point hasn't felt like someone who would do anything without it resonating to him in some way. )