destinystrings | Slow Down, You Crazy Child

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Slow Down, You Crazy Child

Who: Maugris and Johnny for the first thread, then Maugris and OPEN
Where: A little restaurant in Virgo near the border with Libra, then wandering through the city back in the general direction of Pisces (so somewhere in Virgo, Leo, or Capricorn)
When: July 12th; just after nightfall, then during the 13th hour
Summary: Maugris finds someone he's got something in common with and has some dinner, then decides to see this whole 13th Hour business is about.
Warnings: Probably nothing in the thread with Johnny. 13th Hour threads will probably involve violence, possibly accompanied by foul language.

Maugris stepped off the tram, grateful that they ran as late as they did. He'd probably end up walking back... but considering his plans for the night after this, that might be just as well. He glanced around, and yes, there was the restaurant.

He really, really hoped this was the right move. But if this Johnny guy was Kindred, he might know if there were others in the city - and how things got managed around here. If he was really, really lucky, there might be some sort of system set up for getting ahold of blood without going after people at all. But he'd just have to see... hopefully they could talk privately enough to manage this.

Oh, well. Nothing for it but to find out. He took a deep breath, a habit he'd never quite shaken, and stepped into the restaurant.

---

Well, that had given him a lot to think about. Maugris whistled to himself as he headed back toward the apartment building. Slow down, you crazy child, you're so ambitious for a juvenile - but then if you're so smart, tell me why are you still so afraid?

He took his time, enough that he was certainly still out when the sky turned red and the buildings changed around him. His lips twisted a little - the changes were an unpleasant reminder of Metatropolis's fate - but he kept going, still whistling nonchalantly. When will you realize, Vienna waits for you? It was still a long walk back; time to see if he could entice something to come out so he could give this Persona thing a shot.

What turned up gave him a bit of a start - a little floating cape with a jack o'lantern for a head. "You're not one of the Pumpkin King's, are you?" he asked. "I don't even have his damn ring anymore." The Pyro Jack just laughed at him and twirled in a circle, and flames spouted from its lantern. Maugris dodged away, but not fast enough - the flames licked at his jacket, and he couldn't help but cry out as the flesh of his arm started to burn.

But the damage - though it was quite nasty - wasn't the worst of it. Vampires feared fire even beyond their ample reason to do so, and while Maugris usually managed to resist, this time the Beast's instincts were too strong for him. He broke and ran, running as fast as he could away from the source of the flame. But the Pyro Jack had found prey now, and it followed. So anyone else out and about would find a vampire deep in Rotschreck being pursued by a laughing Pyro Jack.

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"Haah...!"

As Maugris and the Pyro Jack continue on their merry chase, they are momentarily interrupted by a flash of light that suddenly illuminates the area; the source is quickly seen to be a small figure half-stumbling, half-running out of an alley to the right. It is a boy, twelve or thirteen years old, carrying a baseball bat and holding a shimmering ball of light in his palm - he would probably be thought of as quite brave if one didn't question why he had been hiding in an alleyway.

His eyes flicker towards the fleeing man, and with a flick of his hand, the ball of light flies forth in Maugris's direction, enlarging as it goes. If it strikes true, the vampire will find himself enveloped in a warm light that settles over him like a second skin, shimmering a soothing cyan. Quite clearly a shield of some sort.

"So these are demons..." A small swallow, and the boy steps forward to challenge the monster with his bat outstretched. "If you can understand me, then... just go home! No one wants a fight here..."

Maugris is slowly starting to regain control of himself - enough to be startled by the shield rather than just ignoring it. He takes a deep breath and, with an effort of will, forces himself to turn back toward the pursuing creature and the boy who seems to be trying to help.

An actual challenge draws the Pyro Jack's attention, and it turns toward Lucas, keeping up its perpetual grin. It seems like Lucas isn't entirely correct - one of them does want a fight here. Maugris is too far away, but another flash of the lantern sends another Maragi spell in Lucas's direction, whipping fire at him.

He'll have help soon, once Maugris is fully in control of himself again, but just at the moment it's just him and the demon.

Lucas, despite his words, didn't expect anything less. With a quick swiping motion, he meets the flames halfway with another flash of light; this one, upon striking the flames, coalesces into a solid barrier that bounces back a good portion of the attack back at the Pyro Jack. The remainder of the flames pierce through, though, and he takes the hit with a wince.

"If this is really what you want..."

He grips his bat now in a ready stance - the barrier still hovers before him as well.

"Then I'll stop you here!"

The first swing of the bat is aimed straight for the Pyro Jack's grotesque pumpkin head.

The Pyro Jack just grins its pumpkin-headed grin as it feels the reflected flames wash over it, looking, if anything, a little happier than before. The bat connects, though, and the demon looks genuinely shocked as it staggers back. It wasn't expecting some kid with a baseball bat to actually hit it.

Maugris, meanwhile, has recovered his nerve and is running again - back toward the fight now. He thinks he can handle himself now, and fire or no fire, he's not going to make a twelve-year-old boy fight for him. Lucas might or might not have noticed that Maugris had a slender sword hanging by his side - odd for someone otherwise dressed in modern clothes - but he isn't drawing it yet. Instead he makes an odd, arcane gesture and chants something incomprehensible, and a gust of wind lashes out at the Pyro Jack - it's hard to tell what sort of damage it does, but it shreds through the demon's cloak as if it was a blade.

"Oh...!"

Lucas is distracted momentarily as Maugris reenters the fray. That wasn't any kind of PSI he had ever seen... But, of course, different worlds played by different rules. With only a slight pause, Lucas takes another step forward to strike the Pyro Jack again - and throws in a kick or two for good measure. Though it isn't any kind of professional martial arts, it seems he doesn't lack experience in monster fighting.

His combo complete (nowhere near 16 hits; he was a bit rusty), he falls back a few steps and calls to the man.

"Are you hurt...?"

"I'll be fine." It's going to take ages for that burn he got to heal, but he'll live as long as he doesn't get too many more of them. "I don't like fire, that's all."

And now he's drawing his own sword, lashing out with a thrust that shatters one of the panes of the Pyro Jack's lantern. Faced with two people hitting it with weapons, the demon pulls away, moving into an odd dancing motion that sends fireballs arcing up to rain down again - two of them, that both crash down on Maugris. He flinches as one of them impacts on the shield Lucas threw up around him, but recovers in time to dodge away from the second.

"Really? That all you got?" Maugris dashes closer, moving a little faster than someone with a burned shoulder really should be doing, and takes a swing, cutting a gash in the fabric of the Pyro Jack's hat and slamming into the monster's pumpkin head hard enough to almost knock it over and leaving a gouge in the rind.

"Ah... I can help. Hold on for a bit."

Lucas backs up a bit as he assumes the role he's more comfortable taking - supporter, healer, and defense. As Maugris takes the offensive, he closes his eyes and calls forth the light of his PSI once more, holding his hands with palms facing up. The flare of light that erupts forth this time descends around the two of them in a shower of sparks - Lucas's minor injuries are healed completely, but Maugris may find that the PSI is more or less effective due to his... unique physiology.

...Thankfully, his healing has nothing to do with divine power or anything along those lines.

Lifeup cast, Lucas takes hold of his bat once more and edges to the side of the Pyro Jack, looking for an opening.

Well, the sparks startle Maugris a little, but they don't seem to do anything to him. Vampires don't really decompose, but they are pretty much dead. He'll heal on his own, though, it will just take a while.

Maugris isn't bothering to put up his own wards, partly because Lucas seems to have shields handled and partly because he doubts they'd do too much to magical fireballs. That, and he's trying to conserve vitae for now. So he's sticking to the sword, helped along by his unnatural strength. He thinks the sword being cold-forged iron might actually be helping, but he's not entirely sure. That would make this thing fae, wouldn't it?

But even if it's not exactly happy with its current position in life, it's far from down and out, and it launches into a Fire Dance again. It spits out four fireballs once more. This time, one heads for Lucas, but the other three converge on Maugris. His eyes widen, but his hands clench and he forces himself to stand his ground.

And then comes a flash of blue light, and a tall figure in green and blue armor catches the fireballs on its shield. "I am though, and thou art I... From the sea of thy soul, I come... I am Malagi, knight-enchanter."

Maugris just looks up at the manifestation for a moment, stunned by its appearance. Malagi already looks a bit singed - shield or no shield, three fireballs don't make him particularly happy, either. But the Pyro Jack has also paused, watching the pretty lights that accompanied the appearance of the Persona.

Lucas may be psychic, but knowing whether or not his healing has any effect doesn't come as part of the package. It's never been a problem before, though, and he operates on the assumption that healing PSI was universally effective on everything - from sentient Men's Room Signs to Rhinocerockets. Had he taken a moment to think about it, he might have recalled the conclusion he had come to only a few moments before: different worlds, different rules.

Regardless, as the Pyro Jack lets loose with the Fire Dance, the boy braces himself for the strike once more. The reflective barrier before him shimmers momentarily before changing color; he had noticed, previously, that the reflected attack had been less than useless. Better to change the Counter into a normal Shield...

"Look out!"

It is targeting Maugris again - Lucas attributes this to the fact that Maugris had been its initial prey, with the dessert-sized morsel blundering in afterwards. But as he is throwing up his hand to cast another PSI...

"Wha -- "

A slight gasp as he looks on in wonder.

"A Persona..."

Well, that, and it thought Maugris's reaction to fire was ridiculously entertaining. It usually takes it more work to send someone running than one Maragi. Of course, it's not working anymore, and the Pyro Jack has taken a bit of a beating, making it rather less happy. People who run from the first attack aren't supposed to turn around and hit it with swords. And they definitely aren't supposed to manifest a Persona. This is not its day.

It's about to get worse, because while neither of them look all that happy, Maugris now has a Persona. It's just graduated from two on one to three on one, seeing as Maugris and Lucas are probably both on a level with a just-hatched Persona on their own. Maugris and Malagi look at each other and nod, the Malagi casts Garula, blasting the Pyro Jack with a gale of wind as Maugris darts in to slash at it again. "Come on, we can take this thing!" he calls over in Lucas's direction.

Lucas has been too busy gaping at the spirit that had suddenly materialized before them to be of much help in the last few seconds; at Maugris's call, though, he shakes out of his stupor and grips his bat a little more tightly.

"R-Right...!"

Hesitating only a moment longer to wait for Maugris to step out of the way, he follows up immediately on the man's attack with an assault of his own. This one is slightly more energetic - whether or not it was the sight of the Persona that had invigorated him or just due to warming up to the fight, Lucas has a better grasp of the groove of the battle. He begins with another solid swing across the enemy's face, following through with a swift roundhouse kick. The momentum is transferred into a slight hop in the air, upon which he defies the laws of physics and hovers momentarily, drives his feet forward, bounces off the Pyro Jack, and ends with a drop kick and a parting shot from the bat.

None of the attacks save the first were anywhere close to dealing heavy damage, but it would, hopefully, add up.

"...You're not going to win." He bounces back from the Pyro Jack and lands firmly on his feet. "Do you really want it to end like this...?"

Maugris is honestly a little impressed - that's an impressive attack, especially for a kid. Never mind the Matrix physics involved.

The Pyro Jack doesn't seem inclined to stop, though, even if it's definitely looking the worse for wear now. Lucas has definitely drawn its attention, though. The lantern flashes and the demon launches into another Flame Dance, even if its movements are a little more labored now. This time, it spouts two more fireballs, both aimed for Lucas.

Well.

He wasn't totally sure if attracting the monster's attention could be considered a success, but if the man disliked fire that much... Lucas's shield remains in place, but otherwise, he makes no obvious move to defend himself as the fireballs slam into him. He winces only slightly and grits his teeth in pain - this was nothing compared to a round of PK Fire Omegas.

Another flash of sparks and the burns that had blossomed on his face and neck rapidly heal, the dead skin falling away as raw, pink skin inches across and closes the wounds. The sensation is, as usual, terrifically uncomfortable, but he's used his PSI on himself enough times that he can bear it without more than a soft sigh.

Lucas quietly holds his bat out and tries to reason with it one last time.

"See....? You'll run out of energy faster than I will." He glances over to Maugris. "There's nothing for you anymore. Attacking humans won't get you what you want."

Not that he knew what it wanted at all.

[action - adventures in pyromania]

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A vampire dinner

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