Open | My Oh My That Moon's A Fright

[stitch_witch]

WHO: Lark and You
WHERE: Temba Whale Comb Sent Her, Temba in general
WHAT: Storm affecting a mage by manifesting ghost-devils, and driving her magic wild
WHEN: During the storm
WARNINGS: First starter involves possible crushing/choking risks from magic gone wrong, or possible nudity (listen she's a thread mage), Second starter involves ghost-demons that will attempt to hunt people down.

I. Thread Magic Gone Wrong | CW: Magic might strangle/restrain/choke those approaching her wearing fabric, or may fall off a person completely

No amount of hiding from the storm could guarantee one would come out of it well. This was something Lark realized quite early on the first day. The fog was thick, almost magically so, not that she could sense it. Not that she could sense anything. All of her power had shuddered away from her when the fog had come, leaving Lark horribly nauseous and anxious. She had rarely felt so drained in her life, and she longed for the teas Rosethorn created that might soothe her.

Weak and tired as she was, Lark resolved she had to find something to soothe her belly. Mint collected from the greenhouse she thought as she looked out from the Whale Comb Sent Her and save the evening clear. The fog had retreated, and not thinking to look up, Lark resolved that she must seek supplies now if she was ever to find any. Tea leaves first, then perhaps she would try and set out for the ships.

So she slipped out into the night, not aware of the danger she was putting herself into as she strode out into the open night.

She didn't make it too far from the doors before it happened. A scream tearing through the air, the moon's call shaking through her and through the city. With it came Lark's magic in a rush, swelling within her in a tide she could not center and control, before it started screaming free of her, seeking threads and fibers and cloth around her to grab, to pull at.

Any fibers around her might easily be caught in this burst of raw magic, and oh but the horrid ways the pulling could go. Seams might give and clothes fall off from around the one wearing them, before the cloth and strings and fibers might try crawling toward Lark. Worse, though, might well be the threads that could not so easily pull themselves free, for those could quite easily contract, squeezing and constricting painfully around wherever they hang, as Lark's own habit did now. The green clad mage was soon screaming in pain as her own clothes started to constrict around her, crushing at her limbs and causing her to collapse.

II. The Ghost-Demons Are Real | CW: Chance of being hunted/attacked by a demon

There is quite a bit to be said for how unprepared Lark was for all of this. She'd heard talk of the storms of course, but the last two that had come she had found herself in Sh'Ka during. All she knew of them she had heard from others, and so it did not prepare her for what was coming now. A figure in the fog, a flash of green robe and crimson hair.

"Rosie?" Lark gasped, then gave chase after her. "Rosie, it's not safe outside!"

She followed the figure, and froze only when a flash of crimson light cut the air above her, lightning almost seeming to shriek. As the light faded the mist around her grew dark, swirling and shifting until it became quite like the form of a floating beast, eyes crimson, claws razor sharp, and oh but it reached for her.

"Yerui," she whispered, eyes wide as she started to back away. "Oh Mila, it can't be."

And with that she turned and ran blindly into the fog, intent on flight.

III. Tired But Sheltered

Hiding. She was hiding. Lark was very aware of this fact. Dealing with the Yerui, dealing with her magic gone wrong, it was all far too terrible. Lark, strong and experienced mage, Dedicate Initiate of the winding circle and thus in many ways priestess of a goddess, woman who had seen so many horrible things in her past, was hiding.

Cowering.

The very idea of it left a bad taste in her mouth, and Lark had to push it from her mind as she laid there in the Whale Comb Sent Her, trying to rest. Rest was not nearly so simple as it might have been, though.

"How long until this horror might pass," she asked of the room around her. "Oh Mila, let it not be long.

Comments

[crystalmaster]

"It's okay. I guess it could have been worse?" Radley supposes that the way things were going, his clothes could have fallen off completely.

[stitch_witch]

"IT could have," she agreed, hand reaching up to rest on her own cheek as she thought. "I could have died without you. In more than one manner."

[crystalmaster]

Radley smiled a bit. "I'm glad I was around then."

He finished the omelettes and brought them over. "Here's some more to eat."

[stitch_witch]

Oh, an omelette. She smiles in relief at a familiar food at that, and carefully reaches for it.

"Thank you. You are so kind Mister..."

She must prompt him for his name before this becomes far too awkward.

[crystalmaster]

Radley is glad this food is acceptable.

"Radley," he smiles.

[stitch_witch]

"I am Lark," she offered back before having some of the prepared food. "And thank you for the acceptance of practical solutions."

Knocking her out had been an effective stop for her.

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, that was one of the strangest requests I've gotten, but I'm glad I could help," Radley smiled.

[stitch_witch]

"I imagine so. Many here seem quite unfamiliar with magic, and those that I previously relied upon for help to monitor it in an emergency are no longer here."

So she didn't have the support she needed to cut herself easily off from it either.

[crystalmaster]

Radley frowns in concern. "They've been sent home?"

[stitch_witch]

"Yes," she agreed with a sigh. She had been quite fond of some of them too, not that there was anything to be done for it.

[crystalmaster]

"I'm sorry," Radley said. "I wish my friends would come, but it would be hard if we didn't all stay together after the fact."

[stitch_witch]

Wishes his friends would come? She cannot fathom that.

"I wish those I love would stay far away from this place. They should not suffer this."

[crystalmaster]

Radley sighs. "No, you're right. I don't want them to be miserable. I just ... wish things were different, I guess ... that they could come and it would be enjoyable for them, without the negative things that are going on now. I know at least one of them would be ecstatic by space travel."

He smiles a bit, wistfully.

"But then I guess the negative things are always a part of the experience here, huh?"

[stitch_witch]

"It seems to be. But we can form new bonds here," Lark says. She thought of Tony, who had become a good friend, and a young man she felt she needed to take care of.

[crystalmaster]

Radley nods. "I try to whenever I can," he agrees. "Meeting people is the one upside of this for me."

[stitch_witch]

Was it?

"Now there is a level of positivity I have not often seen here. I am glad that you have found the silver shine to your clouds," she says with a warm smile. Very bright young man he was.

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah? Everyone's pretty down here?" Radley sighs. "I can't fault them for that. I was upset when I was pulled here from my world. But I'm trying to be useful. I wanna go home, but I'd like to do what I can to help while I'm here."

Just to make a positive difference.... Cliche, perhaps, but he longs for that ... especially after feeling he failed his town.

[stitch_witch]

"Not everyone, but this event will no doubt cause more distress."

She understood his drive to be helpful of course. That was what led to Lark working so hard to make sure there was clothing to be had for any who might wish it.

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, this could mess things up for a lot of us if there's a lot of powers around to go berserk," Radley said, frowning deeply. "Do you know how long these storms go on?"

[stitch_witch]

"I have never been through one before. I was in Sh'Ka when this happened last year," Lark admitted. So she really did not have an idea of what the course of this would be.

[crystalmaster]

"... So the storms don't happen there?" Radley frowned. Why would it always be in one location only? How weird.

[stitch_witch]

"Not last time," she said, her voice sad. "Or perhaps they do not occur at the same time as they do now. It is not easy to be certain one way or the other."

She didn't travel between the cities as often.

[crystalmaster]

"... I guess that's like weather back home, to some extent," Radley mused. "One city will be rained on and the next one over won't be. But the screaming moon ... how could it act out in one place and not the other?"

[stitch_witch]

"I don't know," she repeated. "Much of this place does not behave in ways that make sense. I should not be able to have my magic so sundered from me, Radley."

Which makes this all more upsetting than she can put into words.

[crystalmaster]

"Yeah, no kidding," Radley sighed. He frowned. "That's really disturbing to lose control of your magic. There has to be a way to make it stop. Maybe a soundproof bubble, at least?"