When ur luck stat is in the negative somehow

[ask_whydunit]

Who; Lord El-Melloi II and anyone around
What; Dark Hour Event
Where; Aterat on the other side of the mirror
When; Backdated to the 10th because I am slow
Warnings; None yet, but I will update!



The arrival - OTA:

A certain magus had not trusted the standing mirrors that appeared in everyone’s lodgings from the moment he saw them. Even before he’d heard the whole ‘other world’ thing, he’d seen his reflection, and it had been irritating to see to put it lightly. So rather than interacting with it, or continuing to put up with it. He’d covered the mirror with a sheet and simply ignored it for the last few weeks since his arrival.

Then the bloody thing had started shaking one night, and the sheet fell off… On the one hand, the annoying sight of his other self had not been present. On the other hand, the sight of the room on the other side of the glass had still set off warning signals. So scooping up the sheet, he moved forward to cover it again and go back to relaxing and playing a round of a tactical game on his Gameboy. Only… Well, the sheet was dragging on the floor at his feet and he’d stepped on it and pitched forward clumsily.

And through the mirror, one Lord El-melloi II had gone.

With no mirror present on the other side, the man had done the only thing he could do: Utter some frustrated curses at his bad luck and leave the building behind in search of answers and hopefully some portal back.

What he found outside the building wasn’t much better, of course. Not the worst sight he’d seen in his life… But damn disturbing, accompanied by a tug of unpleasant nostalgia nonetheless, as he looked down at the blood covered streets before his eyes came to rest on the countless coffins stood in rows. What kind of messed up reality had he inadvertently slipped into?

At least this was… manageable outside the obvious disturbing sight. He ended up in weird situations all the time, after all. This was just another day at the office for the professor back in his world… Sure, usually Gray or one of his students was around, but he could manage a small investigation to getting himself out of here easily enough, right? Right. Wrong.

On the run - OTA:

If one skipped forward about two hours, ignoring the standard investigation sequence that inevitably leads to someone finding something they shouldn’t in a horror movie and ending up on the bad side of the thing that’s been lurking in the shadows for most of the movie.

Instead of wandering from one building to the next in a thorough search for a mirror that might be the way out, the mage was currently running (not an activity he enjoyed) between buildings and down side-streets in an attempt to lose more of the damned dark shadowy creatures that kept finding him. Getting too close seemed to cause them to shift into something else though, strange or frightfully beautiful at times, making him wonder if they were some kind of security system for this place, familiars created by something else… But it wasn’t as though he were stupid enough to stick around and ask, they seemed prone to attacking and Waver wasn’t really suited for confrontations of this nature.

At first, running into one here and there had been troublesome, but… not entirely impossible to slow down with a few low-grade gandr shots and flee. Running into several at once was another matter entirely, especially if you say… Were being chased by two and then found yourself cut off by another group ahead that soon morphed to look something like a giant starfish with an eye in the center. “Shit…!” He muttered, skidding to a halt and backing up slightly. Waver’s hair was in total disarray at this point, one hand reaching up to brace his arm as he let another couple cursed shots fly from his fingertips, grimacing as they did little more than slow the things down slightly as they seemed annoyed by the attack more than anything.

Comments

[soulsword]

"Seeming a bit melodramatic there." Did she have to say that? Nope. Was she going to let the opportunity to say it pass her by? Also a nope. Opportunities like this were fleeting, had to hit them while they were hot! "I hope he does. Then I'll get to meet him." Because she wasn't going to go over there unless something happened. Like her being pushed. Something like that. There was no way she was releasing the Darkchilde into this place. Not when she had people here she actually liked that would get completely screwed over. At least they had that in common, neither wanted to swap with their other self.

At least he seemed to be following a lot better than she expected normal people to. Maybe it helped that he didn't seem normal in any way at all. Or maybe it helped that he seemed like he was kind of a nerd that liked theorizing about things. "So you understand." She liked that. It was rare for people to understand and in all honesty, she actually found herself appreciative of that. There was even a hint of a smile on her face, a more genuine one rather than one that held a hint of malice or mischief. "They really do make dumb choices." She shrugged though. "I could have stopped them from the summoning but in order to stop the Elder Gods I needed them to complete it."

Which had also contributed to everyone being mad at her. People hadn't been happy that she'd let them continue with Project Purgatory and eventually summon them. There were some that realized that and held it against her. Understandably. From the start she'd been prepared to accept consequences. Revenge was what had mattered. Revenge and a side of knowing that if she didn't do it the people she'd once considered friends would all die.

"Is it? It took me a long time to figure it out." And a lot of animosity. "Impressive what revenge can fuel you towards. You'd think people would be happy we're rid of creatures like that. They'd have all died to them in the future." But nobody was ever satisfied.

"Exactly. You get it. I mean I probably could somehow...but that'd be dark." Too dark. At least he understood that it all came down to entertainment. Necromancy was possible, but not entertaining. "Good. I'll count on you to not get yourself into a bigger mess and also to not sacrifice yourself to try to help. Even if you think you have a reason. Piotr does that enough for everyone I've ever known." And it was way too annoying.

"Do I, well--" she stopped as a sound came from down a particularly dark alley they passed through. The sound of something squishy and large cluttering around. "Did you hear that?

[ask_whydunit]

Waver’s brow twitched, and it was clear he wanted to snap back at that… But to his credit, he bit the inside of his cheek instead and folded his arms to instead focus her follow up comment. “Short of me tripping through it, that’d be the only way he might make it over.” And he did not intend to let that happen again. He’d find some other way to cover the damn thing to avoid a repeat of tonight’s adventure. The only satisfying aspect of this was knowing that there had been no switch between himself and the other version of him.

“I can… Calculated risks are necessary at times, especially if there’s no other choice.” He shrugged. There were plenty of those made over the years. Although the stakes weren’t nearly as high, of course, and he hated being the one left in the dark… So it might be different if they were in a situation where it was better to keep things from him… But the point stood. “I’d say if our worlds have anything in common, it’s that and the fact that sometimes the things have a way of getting complicated.” Letting things get to a certain point in order to prevent something worse… Though that particular plan was very high risk… Definitely something he was glad for not having had to deal with himself. Handling Aozaki’s… thing… that she hadn’t made them entirely aware of until it was too late was bad enough.

Revenge and spite were particularly strong motivators, even if they were equally dangerous. That said, he frowns a little at the decision she’d clearly had to come to terms with. “It’s perhaps harder to appreciate what didn’t happen than be mad over what it took to get here.” The future that didn’t happen was easy to ignore in favour of the truth of the present, or something like that…

Somehow he believed she probably could find a way to tease him even in death, but there was some relief in the idea that she had a line concerning that… He wasn’t fond of the idea of being messed around with after death. He’d… seen quite enough of that in the Grail War and beyond, really. He opened his mouth to continue when she paused, cutting off his thoughts on the subject of self-sacrifice and apparently someone named Piotr in favour of her question. “Hm?” His brow narrowed, and he glanced in the direction she was looking.

Rather than answer immediately, the magus was silent and listened before finally nodding, his voice lowering some. “I did… I think we have company… It might not know we’re here yet-” No, it was aware of them, and the misshapen form dragged itself further into view before it seemed to pick up the pace once they were in its sights.

[soulsword]

"And that definitely never happened, right?" She gave him an innocent little smile, though even Illyana's best attempt at innocent came off a little...not. More than a little.

"Spoken from experience." It wasn't a question, but rather a firm assumption that she was correct there. Few people actually understood that and sometimes it was nice to think someone might. Even now she knew most of her fellow teammates would never fully get why she'd felt she needed to take the risks she had. Desperation could cause a lot of unpleasant things for people and more often than not it brought out the worst in them. "Everything always gets complicated for us." For just a moment she sounded as young as she actually was. There was a mixture of both tiredness and bitterness in the statement that betrayed someone that was far too used to thinks getting messy and complicated. Nothing ever seemed to just be simple.

"It shouldn't be for us. We all know about alternate universes and timelines." So logically it should be easy to appreciate someone trying to change it. But she supposed it came down to them being angry she left them in the dark.

Her eyes narrowed and a slow wide smirk began to tug at her the edges of her lips as the thing came moving faster in their direction. "Oh, it knows," she said as she pulled the sword out of her chest. With one fluid motion she raised it into the air as a makeshift light source, which only seemed to make the shadow rush at them faster. Rather than letting it finish closing the distance she made a leap towards it, slashing the sword down through a part of it and chunking off a piece of black gelatinous...something. Whatever it was disappeared once it was separated from it's main body and then it lunged at her only for her to teleport above it. She came down from above slamming the sword straight through it.

"That was no challenge." At least as long as there was only one.

[ask_whydunit]

“... Right. Of course not.” He lied, like a great big liar, as he pointedly looked away from that too innocent expression of hers that definitely suggested something other than innocence.

“Indeed, though I would say the stakes were hardly the same compared to your own situation.” He responded with a shrug to confirm her assumption. Risking one’s own skin to get out of a bad situation is different from saving an entire timeline, certainly. The shift in her tone actually gets a slightly surprised glance from the professor, brows furrowing lightly at the obvious shift in her voice and the weight there. It gave a small glimpse of something under the usual demeanor she wore… “By your descriptions of your world and what happens there since we’ve met, I can see that… It’s no wonder you’re not accustomed to boredom.”

Waver backed up a few more steps as Illyana launched an attack on the creature. Clearly, she moved with all the grace of someone who was used to combat. His eyes following the arc of her sword as it slashed at the creature once and then again as she teleported and descended upon it from above. The skills of those around him never failed to impress him, really, and it was hard sometimes to not wonder how these things worked in other worlds. But for the moment, his attention was on the shadow as it succumbed to the attack and disappeared.

He sighed lightly, shaking his head at her comment. “No offense, but I’d rather no challenge than a challenge in this situation.” The mage said, speaking too soon as usual as something dark slammed into him and sent him tumbling to the ground of the alleyway. A couple more shadows seemed to have been attracted to the mouth of the side street with all the commotion from Illyana’s fight.

[soulsword]

"Ohh, now that's more like it," she said with a large grin as she held her sword up to judge the situation. A few more shadows had joined the fight, one even sending Waver on a tumble that caused Illyana to just shake her head.

"Hey, shadows, pick on someone your own size," she said as loudly as she could to the creatures. At least it seemed to get their attention away from her companion for the time being. A few more had come out now, moving to cut off all forms of escape for the two of them. Fighting directly would only result in harm potentially coming to Waver while she couldn't look so magic it would have to be. She began to chant a few words under her breath and a strange sort of heat began to swirl around her. Two serpents rose from the heat, each made of hellfire and each slithering out in an opposite direction towards the groups of shadows. Hellfire wasn't like normal fire, it held no elemental power and instead damaged directly with the dark energy of Limbo itself. Illyana directed the snakes out with her hands sending them to wrap around the shadows, engulfing them in tornado of flames.

The expended dark energy resulted in horns appearing on her head as she tried to pull the fire back after it had done it's job of ridding them of their Shadowy enemies. More would come with the show she was putting on but she wasn't entirely certain if the correct move would be to stand their ground here.

"Come. We need to leave before more arrive."

[ask_whydunit]

For once, Waver wasn’t particularly focused on the details around him. Normally he’d be watching intently, impressed by another’s magical abilities and trying to work out just how they worked in his head. Instead, the mage remained where he’d been knocked down by the shadows attacked, head down as some unspeakable weight settled on his shoulders and clouded his usual quick thoughts and attempt at coming up with a tactical plan of attack to assist or guide from the sidelines.

Where the man was usually known for being stubborn in the face of what seemed like hopeless struggles and not letting his many insecurities and inferiority complex keep him down, he couldn’t quite push them from his mind and pick himself up off the ground. Clenching a fist, he tried though, frowning severely at himself even as he felt the rather impressive hellfire snakes attack wrapping around the shadows.

It wasn’t until their attackers were engulfed in flame and reduced to nothing but dissipating puddles of shadow that he managed to raise his head as the weight finally lifted from his mind. Blinking slightly, he shook his head before his eyes fell on Illyana and a brow raised. “You’ve got horns…?” Stumbled out a bit awkwardly first, before what she said connected a moment later and he forced himself back to his feet with a small groan. “Right… We should, would rather, not tempt fate further if we can.” He muttered and did his best to ignore the blood stains soaked into his clothes from falling into the street. Great… Now he looked like he’d murdered someone.

Once he had his bearings enough to start walking again, he offered an awkward glance to his companion again. “And thanks, by the way.” He does know how to thank people for saving his ass, after all.

[soulsword]

"Oh? You don't say, what a new development," she narrowed her eyes at him at the comment about her horns. One comment was all it took to ruin the good mood she'd been in from the fight. If asked she'd insist that she didn't care if he saw her horns, but that wouldn't be the truth. There was always a part of her that hated when people she might actually sort of potentially care about saw that part of her.

"And you have blood stains all over you. From falling." So which was really worse? Probably horns but hey, she felt the need to say something back. She began to walk at his side, keeping a tight grip on her sword just in case more appeared.

"I'll keep a note on you owing me."

[ask_whydunit]

“Well, to me it is.” He responded with a roll of his eyes at her statement, shrugging lightly. Clearly, the professor wasn’t bothered by the horns. Why would they? He’d seen stranger things in his life than a woman with horns. Svin literally gained the form of a large phantasmal wolf when using the most common form of his beast magic. Hell, his apprentice’s face sent him into panic attacks on occasion, considering she currently looked like someone who tried to kill him once. So, somehow, he could handle seeing Illyana’s horns more easily. “I take it that it’s normal for when you use your abilities like that.” He added, no hint of judgement in his voice, having noticed the way she narrowed her eyes at him when he first asked. The more sensible concern in his opinion would be to worry about if he ever accidentally pissed her off enough to have that power turned on him.

The attention on his clothes gets a sigh. “I’m unpleasantly aware of that, thanks. I’m probably going to need to burn this suit…” He mumbled with a scowl. It felt gross, and he sure as hell didn’t expect he was going to be able to ever get it properly clean. He hoped that the trail they were following was going to lead to a mirror, after all. The sooner he could do away with the remains of that encounter, the better, in his opinion.

Waver was used to being in debt in some form, so he offered a nod. He wasn’t really sure what she might expect down the line, which was a little unsettling… But he’d cross that bridge if he came to it.

[soulsword]

"Hmm, I hadn't expected you to be shallow enough to notice physical changes." There was a hint of defensiveness in her tone rather than her usual sarcastic teasing. Even if he wasn't judging right now she was still...strangely worried about a future judgement coming. How odd. The only time she ever cared about someone seeing her demonic features had been when they were someone she actually cared about an opinion of. Irritating.

"In my world dark magic taints you and dark magic is offensive magic," she replied a bit curtly. "Sometimes your features change when you use it. This form was the form I took without a soul, when pieces were taken bit by bit. They show up sometimes when I use a lot of black magic all at once. Is that a problem?" She tilted her head slightly and then looked forward towards the trail they were following.

"Onwards then!" She tried to give a bit of enthusiasm to her statement to take away from any potential emotions besides that he might pick up. "I could clean it up for you." But would she? Probably not now.

[ask_whydunit]

“When the use of magic is involved, I suppose I can’t help but observe out of curiosity.” He responded, tone just a touch uncertain and maybe a smidgen embarrassed at being called out on that. Reines had gotten on his case more than once for speaking or asking about things like this without thinking, and while he tried, sometimes his curiosity got the better of him. This was why some people tended towards wanting to kill him, really, because sometimes those observations exposed a little too much of a family’s magic.

Her curt explanation was given his undivided attention, though, expression unreadable as he turned the idea over in his head. So he was right, to an extent. Her magic, or the ‘dark magic’ aspect of it, had the side-effect of altering her appearance from the corruption of that magic.

“I see…” Again, he’s too observant for his own good, unfortunately. It’s clear this is a subject that she’s trying very hard to not show bothers her… It seemed like she was expecting him to judge her for them. “There are varieties of magic where I’m from that change and alter the user’s mind or body the more they use or perfect it, too. It’s not like I haven’t seen something like this before, and you clearly know what you’re doing when you choose to use it.” Seriously, Illyana. The man is far more afraid of magic being turned on him than he is of spontaneous horns. This was just how her magic worked, and she was the one who chose to use it knowing that it could happen. To help him, as he recalled easily… “So. No, I don't have a problem.”

And as Illyana picked up the pace abruptly, he actually quickened his step as well in an attempt to keep up as she hurried forward. He’d said what he needed to say and hopefully that would stop her from worrying about her horns. Instead, he raised a brow at her suggestion…? Offer…? Random statement…? “You ‘could,’ huh?”