thenearshore | [Closed] Seasons of wither

Entry tags:

[Closed] Seasons of wither

Who: Dokugakuji

royaltyloyalty
What: Prayer with Erk (#30)
When: June 15
Where: Starting at Far Shore, then Near Shore TBD
Warnings: n/a yet

---
[Now that Erk's had some time to settle in, Dokugakuji walks around until he finds where Erk's been practicing, Meji walking behind him out of sword form.]

Hey Erk. You busy right about now?

[He's a lot more casual around Erk than Alluka since he's another more or less adult guy and Doku's issues center mainly around kids and women. Alluka is both.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A little while ago, Alluka and Doku had gone off on their first prayer together. When he got a similar request, he just went ahead and investigated the situation in the big city - thinking he could just more or less repeat what he and Alluka had told the last person when it came to advice.

Apparently it was not so simple a matter.

Dokugakuji teleports back to the Far Shore, to his temple, and calls out for his shinki as if they didn't all have phones to solve this matter easier.]

Erk! Alluka! MEJI! MASAJI!

[He has to yell for them not because they're Soulless but because he's sure they're further up the path out of that small valley and thus less likely to hear him. He could call them all by their shinki names but doesn't want to treat them like that.]

[Well, that doesn't sound good. Erk looks up from his book with a start. It actually sounds rather urgent.

Still, he takes half a moment to slip a bookmark between the pages before grabbing his magic tome and his cloak and hurrying from his room to find his god. He's still fastening the cloak around his shoulders when he arrives at Dokugakuji's side, looking up at the man in mild concern.]

Is something wrong?

[Alluka, likewise, doesn't seem to be doing anything of any great importance... Possibly nothing at all? Regardless, she shows up fairly quickly at Dokugakuji's call, looking pretty bewildered about all of them being gathered up like this.]

What's going on?

I need you all to help me defeat an ayakashi - before it takes out a whole nursing home.

[He makes a slight head movement in Alluka's direction.]

Awhile back we answered a prayer together, Alluka and I. Helping with figuring out how to pay for medical expenses, you remember that? I felt something similar... so I just thought I could handle it, no big deal.

Instead I get there and there's this big ol' ayakashi hovering in the sky like a serpent coiling on a nest of eggs or baby animals or something. Except it's all elderly folks in there. You two in?

[He knows he doesn't have to ask the Soulless if they'll join them, but they're only just now coming down the path and he does want to treat them as best he can, so he'll look to them in a second.]

Of course.

[Erk doesn't hesitate. Despite the jolt of nervousness he feels at Dokugakuji's evocative description of the ayakashi they need to deal with... this is what he's here for. This is his duty, and he's eager to fulfill it to the best of his ability.

Besides, he did fine against the first ayakashi he faced. He can do this. He rests a hand against the tome holstered at his hip, its weight a source of reassurance.]

[For sure, that sounds like a pretty spooky menace to deal with. Alluka's sense of danger and the fear that should rightfully come with it is, fortunately or unfortunately, rather absent, so rather than finding any sort of nervousness in the idea of fighting against an ayakashi, she's more amazed at the idea of actually facing off against the thing.]

We can go! [She does, after all, implicitly trust Dokugakuji to not put them in any situation the group of them wouldn't be capable of handling.] We should go right away, right?

[He's glad they're both willing, and their trust in him makes him smile - a little. Yeah, it's a serious situation, but he's happy they're ready to take this thing out.]

That's what I'm talkin' about!

[He of course has to recall them in the order he met them.]

Mokki! Keiki! Kanki! Enki!

[His first soulless shinki, the one that looks like his old sword appears in his right hand first, followed by Alluka's pendant, then Masaji's lantern in his left hand, then Erk's ring. He gets a swell of pride at all four of them being here with him together.]

Alright!

[With that, he teleports down to the Near Shore, back where he'd come from - about a building away on the rooftop so that everyone can see the ayakashi he'd described earlier.]

[That... certainly is a big ayakashi. Erk still has to puzzle at how he can even see in this form, but that's of no concern right now; their foe seems far more dangerous than the other ayakashi he's faced, and it looks as though it could descend on the nursing home and consume everyone within at any given moment.

...Hoo boy. Okay, it's all right, they've got this. There are five of them, and only one of it. They can do this. Probably.]

Do you have a strategy planned, or are we just going to attack it head-on? [Erk would prefer a plan, but whether or not there's time for one might be another matter. The way it's hovering there, ready to strike... he doesn't like it one bit.] If we could lure it away, perhaps...

[It's incredible, really, in how menacing that ayakashi is in person. Even so, Alluka's trust in their god remains unshaken, and she doesn't find herself particularly frightened, but definitely surprised at how massive and scary looking it is.

Being so young and completely inexperienced in combat, she's not really much for strategics, but Alluka does her best to help in coming up with a plan.] Try to take it somewhere with less people? ['Hmmm...' That way, there's less of a chance of collateral damage, but...] How far away would we need to go?

[On the one hand, he wants the both of them to be able to take part in striking down the ayakashi, since he's not used Alluka's power yet.

Hmm... Luring it away seems like the best option right now. If you have any spells in mind, Erk - I leave it in your hands. Alluka, do you feel like there's a way you'd be comfortable Rending this thing?

[Just because she's in her form doesn't mean she really can. But he wants to give her that option.]

['Any spells in mind'... that makes it sound as though he has a lot to choose from. It's Fire or Thunder; if Erk's capable of anything beyond those, he hasn't discovered it yet. They can both do some damage though, and he's already considering which would be best for the given situation.]

When we're ready, I'm sure I can draw its attention. [Another thing his magic is useful for.]

[Rending it...]

That's how we take it down for good, right?

[Not something she's ever actually done, of course, but there's no reason she wouldn't be able to. In theory anyway.]

I'll do my best!

[On board 100%]

[Hard for him to remember how magic works for Erk considering he can barely keep track of how the god/shinki magical bonds work as someone who only ever summoned his weapon into his hand before.]

Alright, then I say we're ready for that attention-grabbing, Erk.

[While he tries to figure out his newest Soulless's power... before they get up close and personal with the ayakashi.]

Then we'll try a Rend with Alluka first.

[He removes her necklace from around his neck and wraps it around his hand that's not holding his Mokki sword.]

[Erk has to wonder offhand just how, exactly, Alluka's going to Rend this thing; he hasn't any notion of what her power is. But it must be possible--it's something all shinki are capable of, right?--so he'll leave that to her and Dokugakuji to figure out.]

All right, then.

[Here goes nothing. Thunder is his most attention-grabbing magic, but they're not close enough for him to strike the ayakashi with it... so instead, Erk aims a bolt directly in front of its face. That should get its notice, even if the deafening crack of lightning striking the nursing home's lawn somehow fails to.

(The residents of the home probably just got the fright of their lives. Hopefully he hasn't caused any heart attacks...)

Sure enough, the spell has the desired effect. The beast draws back from the flash, turns... and spots them.]

[Really, Alluka's not positive how this is going to work, but there surely has to be some way for it to, right? Maybe using the pendant as a bludgeon...? It's not very big at all, but it might work with enough concentration! Probably!

Regardless, if Dokugakuji thinks it's worth a try, she'll absolutely do her best! Just gotta focus, and keep hat focus...

That thing sure is looking at them now.]

Do we go in now?

Sure do!

[Dokugakuji prepares both Alluka and Erk's powers to amplify Meji and Masaji's, then unleashes a series of attacks.]

Rend!

[With that, the ayakashi is defeated.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Closed] Seasons of wither

Prayer #6 - July 1st: Alluka and Erk

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject