castaside | [Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

[ OH BOY ]

[ OH! BOY! ]

[ Korone's quick to grab her titanium bo out of her bag - and the purple glitter force potion, which she uncaps and promptly attempts to teleport into the dragon's mouth. The potion is intended to knock the user out as if they were dead, no pulse, no breathing, if only temporarily, with no side effects when they wake up. If it works, it may buy them some time. If it doesn't -

They'll just have to deal. She's got her staff up and ready just in case ]

The dragon gets hit by the wall of earth, and shakes its long body off like it's mostly irritated about being covered in soil now, and then it proceeds to cast thick shadows over the whole room. It can't make things pitch-black in the whole area, but it can make it so that it blends in almost fully with the darkness, given its color.

The potion misses the dragon's mouth but it lands intact and unspilled on the treasure pile, you can pick it up if you can find it.

[As a note, yes, Donnie is wearing the golden cloak.]

[And oh boy, darkness ain't great, and nor is magic not doing a lot.]

[Okay. Donnie is tugging the cloak closer and activating the dragon ring for scales for good measure. He pulls down his goggles, having it cycle through modes until he finds one that is hopefully able to track the dragon. And if not that?]

[Spidershell extends metal legs to get Donnie in the air, allowing him to still use tremor sense, dropping the deafening effect.] We're gonna need to move, Choco. Teleport and climb? [These legs can and will climb up the walls and are ready to get him MOVING when he has the freedom too.]

[But he is switching tech bo to hammer mode, ready for hitting if the opportunity presents itself.]

Edited 2024-03-15 00:57 (UTC)

[ This darkness sure isn't great! Actually! ]

Got it.

[ SHIELD: DOWN ]

[ PIGEON: immediately teleporting outta dodge, to where she thinks the potion may have landed so she can maybe try again with it. she works quickly to switch spells and recast a shield around herself - a one-way, more portable bubble tinted dark to blend in with the shadows, with the trade-off that it's slightly less durable than the traditional version.

From within the ... maybe safety of the camouflaged shield, she summons a little ball of blue fire to light her way. ]

The dragon doesn't even glance around when Korone vanishes, because the dragon couldn't see her even before the concealing shield was up. The fire reveals that the potion isn't within her shield, but she can see the glint of the bottle just outside.

Bad news is, that means it's full focused on Donnie. It silently charges at Donnie, which he'll be able to see quite well given that his goggles so the work of making him quite able to see in the dark.

[When part of your skill set is about hiding in shadows, the better you can see, the better you can utilize it. He settles on the vision to keep eyes on the dragon. He'll also take it's eyes on him.]

[Time to do an experiment, throwing up another deafening bubble around him to see if the silence messes with the dragon, and use his charge against him as he points the end of the staff towards the dragon when that charge gets close.]

[And changes the end to a chainsaw.]

[ The good thing about this particular shield is that she can move it! So when she sees the bottle, that's exactly what she does - pick up the shield, like it's a bucket she's hiding under, walks a couple of paces, and plops it back down again.

The dragon's silence and the way it hides in the darkness won't make this easy, though. Hm. That's -

... CHAINSAW??

Fuck, okay, now she knows where the dragon is. And it's too late to switch back to her shield spell. Thinking fast, working fast, she summons a few motes of harmless blue light like twinkling fireflies over in that direction, and uses those, the sound, and visualising the dragon's mouth (thanks for roaring, dracaque!) to once again try teleporting the bottle of potion into its mouth. ]

The potion is successfully teleported into the dragon's mouth! Success -- almost! It gets stuck between the dragon's rows of sharp teeth, so it hasn't overturned yet. Surely the thing will do a fun barrel roll sometime and the potion will get jostled enough to spill.

Meanwhile, the dragon vanishes into a shadow portal right as it's about to get in Donnie's range. Your goggles are impressive but they can't detect where the dragon is going through the portals. It re-emerges behind Donnie and goes to snap at him with its mouth, then swipe with its claw.

[It was true, the goggles couldn't do anything about portals.]

[But training with Leo certainly did.]

[Donnie knows the moment the dragon vanishes what to expect. Its hard to track when his guard is down, but when he's in a fight, he knows what to look for, that subtle shift in the surroundings, the sudden space where it hadn't been before.]

[Behind.]

[The arms let go of the wall, dropping down from the jaws. Unfortunately Leo's range of attack was only so big, so he'll need to rely on his natural hardiness, the protective dragon scales from the Dragon Ring, and armor for the claws, but he's clear of the jaws.]

[Maybe he would have cleared the claws.]

[But Donnie had chosen the spidershell specifically for this kind of fight. The range of motion, metal hands changing into spikes and lashing out to stab into the dragons face and activate their tazer settings.]

[ And while Donnie's fielding the close quarters offensive, Korone does what she can from the back row — she uses the flicker-flash of the spidershell's taser, and the blue firelights she'd summoned before, to guide her in conjuring up two (distinctly less blue and harmless) fireswords. They plummet down to hopefully impale the dragon through its arms —

And are swiftly followed up by two of the real swords from Macaque's supply, teleported over and then dropped down with every ounce of telekinetic force she can muster. ]

The dragon's jaws miss Donnie but the claws will be a direct hit... but then they bounce right off the golden cloak with no damage to it or to Donnie. Macaque was really watching out for you.

Three of Donnie's spider arms miss but one connects, ripping a foot-long gash into the dragon's side. It roars but seems mostly unfazed by the injury... and then two of Korone's sword slam right into its neck and stick there. The dragon thrashes madly and the potion dislodges from its teeth and spills.

Since the dragon is uh HUGE it'll take a little bit for the poison to work. In the meantime, it vanishes into a portal. It could come back in again anywhere.

Donnie is expecting the pain digging his into arms or his thighs. His plastron may be fine, but his limbs aren't near as hardy, but he feels its worth it for a good hit-

Except.

There is impact, he's forced back, and he has to summon the ninpo hover wings to catch him since the wall isn't as in easy reach, shooting up towards the ceiling. There was contact. But he didn't feel it and he looks down. He doesn't see any scratches on the Dragon Scales.

Some scuffs on the cloak, but no damage.

....oh.

He supposed it was time to do a stress test. "Keep looking out for me please, Papaque."

He sees a goal, and the tech bo turns back into a hammer as he drops the ninpo and lets himself dive down with the back of the rocket hammer igniting. Diving down hard and fast to smash down towards his head. Or back. Really, anywhere that gets him close to those swords to release an electric blast to use as a conductor.

[ The fire swords didn't do a whole lot of good. The real ones, on the other hand? They seemed to do the (slightly horrifying, something to think about later or maybe let's just not) trick.

Between that and the shape of Donnie's plan, she decides to try it again with the last of her borrowed swords and two throwing knives, teleporting them in a cluster and dropping them in hard the moment the dragon reappears. She keeps her teleport spell primed and ready just in case she needs to get Donnie out of there at short notice. ]

The dragon pops out of its portal directly below Donnie, but Donnie sees it in time to strike with his hammer, though the dragon moves just enough for Donnie to miss hitting one of the swords that Korone jammed in its neck. Korone's daggers strike its flank a moment later though, and Donnie gets a second shot thanks to the way the dragon moved to dodge. This hit strikes, and the combination of electric shock and the effects of the potion do their work.

The dragon lands hard on its hoard of gold, sluggish and bleeding. Alive, but it's up to you whether it stays that way.

Donnie lands on the ground and sends out his Ninpo, purple metal plating forming and slotting together to wrap around the dragon. The bindings shedding light to try and minimize shadows directly touching the dragon.

He's moving closer, scanning over the dragon. "We shouldn't linger long after he's stabilized."

[ The fact that Korone blew well past her old cast limit hasn't quite occurred to her yet, so focused was she on that's a dragon holy shit we have to fight Dracaque the Dadragon. She'll feel it in a minute, once the adrenalin has run its course.

She half jogs, half flaps over to join Donnie, giving him a quick but thorough once-over. ]

Just enough to make sure he'll be okay and get that item.

[ Satisfied that Donnie's in one piece, Korone crouches, facing the dragon. Near enough to be there but not so close that Donnie's likely to have a heart attack about it. Her hands rest in her lap. ]

How can we help you?

In one of the dragon's hind paws there is a golden key which you can get out of its slack grip easily enough. Thanks to the potion and electrocution and bindings, it's not going anywhere. It does still have the blades in its neck and flank, so it continues to bleed.

When Korone asks how they can help, there is a voice in the room despite the dragon not opening its mouth:

I am here to protect. Without me, we may crumble.

And really, that's why the blades are still in there, so there is LESS bleeding.

Donnie will go grab the key and move over to hand it over to Korone. He already got a thing so this may be important to her.

"So you're self defense," he said and paused, looking at the gold hoard. "Maybe selfishness, but that's hardly bad. I supposed we're lucky he didn't want to hoard us," Donnie said. "We could heal the injuries. I can drop the bindings when we're out of the room."

[ She takes the key when Donnie offers it to her. ]

Dracaque to protect Macchan's innermost heart, huh? Makes sense. [ Her voice softens, ] You're here for a reason. It's not a bad thing to want to protect yourself, and letting people in this far ... [ she tightens her grip on the key ] It's hard and it's scary. To say the least.

We're gonna help you, okay? If Donnie removes the blades, I'll heal the injuries. You'll be good as new. [ ... ] Um, after a nap.

[ The purple potion is a doozy. ]

Korone's ring starts to glow as the speaks to the dragon, more brilliantly the more words she says.

It is the fear that created me. But you are not afraid of me. The dragon seems pleased and surprised by this.

He will lay there because he doesn't have much choice. He'll be asleep soon, but in the meantime he watches the two with curious, discerning eyes.

"Of course not," Donnie said, holding a hand out in the air, forming a metal claw to remove the blades.

"My older brother, Raph, he has these...episodes, sometimes, when he ends up in high stress situations on his own. Childhood trauma, ill proper coping mechanism, yada yada. So when we know he's been on his own an extended time, we approach cautiously because he might lash out," he said, moving the claw to remove a sword from the neck when Korone was ready to heal. One at a time so she can heal the worst first with the most she energy she can.

"And of course when I'm overstimulated, I can lash out. Korone's seen that. Now its a rule to make sure I don't have a sharp thing before getting in range if I'm having a rough time." He very much does not look at Korone when he says this. "Then there's Dr. Delicate Touch with Mikey...and then there's dad with Rat Flu."

He huffs and shakes his head. "Sometimes family hurts each other. The part that matters is what you do after."

Edited 2024-03-18 20:03 (UTC)

You weren't acting out of malice. [ She smiles at the dragon. Soft yet warm, and very much from the heart. ] We respect you. Your strength. Your feelings, your reasons.

[ The ring almost distracts her. She does glance down at it, but she's quick to refocus, especially when Donnie gets himself set up for removing the first of the blades. ]

… And I'd rather meet you with an open heart, you know?

[ She gives Donnie a nod to show that he can pull whenever he's ready. The moment he does, she starts casting, pouring on her healing magic to take care of that wound specifically — it's a warm, dappled feeling, like spring sunshine on raindrops, soothing pain as well as stopping the bleeding and mending the wound itself. Assuming it works, anyway, but listen, she is not half-assing this. If she has to recast, she has to recast. ]

The dragon listens. There's not much else it can do. As Donnie talks, the ring glows even brighter, and then brighter still when Korone speaks again. Seems like it's reacting to their words, or rather, showing how the dragon is receiving those words.

Family is a strange concept to us. We have never had one before.

The healing magic will take more time than usual to work, but work it does.

"Then we'll show you how it's done," Donnie said, studying the rate the wounds are healing. "Adoption is a big thing in my family."

He reaches out his hands to Korone's shoulders. "Let me help, Songbird," he said softly, and pushing some of his own energy through the ninpo to her so the healing didn't take it all outof her.

We'll teach you the ropes. [ Korone promises, echoing Donnie. ] It's okay if it takes time. It's okay if mistakes are made along the way; if someone stumbles, or falls.

A big part of being a family is reaching out. We'll be there for you, and we know you'll be there for us.

[ She leans back into Donnie's capable hands, grateful both for the physical contact and the magical assist. It's finally started to hit her that she'd blown past her old cast limit over the course of the fight. ]

Thanks, Donnie.

[Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

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