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xp_logsThe magic that turned the volunteers into merfolk will end easily. The involuntarily besquidded however, require some more work. It takes two witches to disarm the octo-occupied.
Naked, in the middle of the ocean, still not completely human, and with a migraine quickly blooming - if Topaz hadn't been annoyed when she had been dragged out of her library, she certainly was now. Considering Jean and Namor were right there, though, still very not even close to looking human, she was doing her best to keep her annoyance down. "'Kay," she said, struggling to keep her voice from chattering as she looked at Amanda. "So what do you need me for?" The words were a lot less combative than they had been when the Seftons had come to fetch her.
"Whatever these squid things do, they've got a pretty firm grip on their personalities as well as their heads," Amanda said. By contrast she was much perkier and cheerful than Topaz, mainly due to the influence of Key West, not so very far away. "I can work on getting the squids off, but it's going to need some cooperation from them. So, if you do your empathy thing, maybe see if you can't encourage their people parts to come back? Jean first, and then we can do Namor all together." She snorted. "Oh, that came out so wrong."
"Next time we're going to a grumpy city," Topaz informed Amanda, rubbing her temples. At least she wasn't singing again. "Alright, I'll see what I can do with Doc Jean." She was tempted to add a joke about letting her drown if she passed out from exertion, but it didn't seem quite as funny after the mental attack Jean's squid had gone at her with. Instead she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and slipping easily into her head. Finding the human mind was a lot easier this time, and Topaz was grateful for that as she started to pry them apart, trying not to pay attention to any other emotions - they would just be distractions.
Jean felt torn, rather literally. The human side of her wanted this damn thing off, while the creature buried deep inside knew something was amiss and started to fight back, ramming itself at the vestiges of her mental walls. Jean tried to find her focus, and help Topaz as much she could, lending her own emotions to help bury the influence down. She was reminded of a scene in the Alien series where they managed to jettison the Alien off into space.
For a moment, she thought of how easy it would be to let go, let the creature take back over, and kill them all..or at least, that was what she wanted the squid to think. Just when she had the squid's defenses lowered and ready to take back over....she hit the airlock doors, hammering it with a telepathic blast that stunned it.
It was now or never. Amanda pulled in as much power as she could from the city, tamping down the more frivolous urges it was giving her, and wove it into the spell. "Hold still," she told Jean as she approached the woman, hands glowing blue-white with magic. "This might pinch a little." And with that, she lay her hands on the squid.
Two weeks ago if you told Jean she was going to be in this situation she...probably would've believed you. Still, with all the weird/horrible things that had happened, this was pretty damn high up there. Did that help? Hell fucking no.
The brightness of Amanda's hands made Jean flinch and she was forced to close her eyes. As the magic flowed, she could feel something start to turn, like a key twisting in a lock. The squid's hold quickly loosened.
Of course, the break in the spell made the squid react in kind, and it started to squirm, it's tendrils lashing out violently and wrap itself around her neck, anything to stay right where it was. Jean began to choke, reaching up to grab the squid. She could feel it's cold, slick rubbery skin as she grabbed onto it.
The emotions coming from the creature came to a fever pitch...anger, desperation, even....fear, and Jean almost felt a faint swell of pity--almost. The main tendrils were longer than the smaller ones, and it took a few tries, but she was finally able to yank them all the way out, tossing the squid away, where it slammed against the side of the boat, then wriggled around looking for somewhere to go.
But Jean was more preoccupied with trying to breathe as she took in massive gulps of air in between coughing.
It was honestly a testament to how fucked up things were that this still wasn't the weirdest thing Topaz had ever seen. But then, it was hard to top the end of the actual world. "One down," she said, eyeing Namor warily. It had been harder to break him free of the squid's influence. What was getting it off him completely going to be like.
The once-king had been giving the ladies their own space, observing impassively from afar. Even with the squid attached to him, he struck an imposing figure. Just one with sharp teeth and too many questionable tentacles to be found this close to the surface. As Topaz's eyes met his own, he finally spoke. "So. Now then."
Then Namor proceeded to try and remove the squid from his own head without the magic part of "magical removal." To him, logically, it made sense: he could survive in the sea or the ground already. Being Atlantean, and royal, he was thereby superior to the ill-suited Doctor Grey. It should be easier.
... and to his credit, he got a little bit to tear before he was stuck convulsing as the squid tried to reassert control.
"Hey, woah, stop!" Amanda moved to his side to grab one of his wrists - ineffectually, she knew, but it was more of a accentuation of her words. "You'll do yourself damage if you just rip it off. Hold on a second."
Jean tried to make a sound to speak up in between coughs, but nothing came out except for a few scratchy sounds. Her throat burned in agony every time she swallowed. It'd probably take a bit more time to heal. Letting out a sigh of frustration, she swam back over.
~I can link you, me, Topaz so that we can help bring more of Namor to the surface. I can sense the animal. Its hold is still pretty firm, even with what we did earlier.~
"Especially when it feels threatened. Okay, sounds like a plan. Namor, hold still, for the love of whatever."
Topaz didn't generally resent her empathic abilities as much as she did her magic. Today she just hated both. ~Yeah, great,~ she grumbled at Jean. Her head was starting to pound. ~Let's get this over with.~
Going into Namor's mind was just as weird, if slightly less messy, than it had been the first time. Topaz closed down as many parts of her own mind as she could, lest anyone catch something she didn't want them to see, and focused on the not-squid part of Namor's mind. She could already feel it preparing to fight back. Great.
He came here to party, and honestly Namor was feeling so attacked right now. He could, however, handle it -- the man had been pulled from a time where war was a bit more hands-on. Namor was ready to be squids-off. If it was possible to give a mental equivalent of a thumb's up, he took the reigns in holding the squid's presence still as Topaz and Jean entered his mind. This smoothed the waters for the women to operate, and the man's body stilled, still tensed, in the water as they began their work.
With Namor relatively immobile and somewhat calmer and cooperative, Amanda cast the spell again, laying blue-glowing hands on the squid attached to the Atlantean's face. The creature squirmed and thrashed, trying to keep its grip, but the spell, powered with a fresh burst of energy from Key West, was too much for it, and its grip began to loosen.
While the battle was every bit as fever pitched for the squid as it had been for Jean, Namor's mental stillness -- a product not of calm or serenity, but instead the hyperfocused aggression of a warrior matched with every frustration he had about being bottled and tossed into a new world -- encouraged the spell. The squid released its tendrils, floating free.
After a cursory glance to make sure Namor was okay, Jean kept an eye on the dislodged squid as it slipped below the surface, maintaining a telekinetic wall around them in case it tried to go facehugger again. She felt nauseous--both figurative and literally--and incredibly ready to go home. The idea of vacationing here was off of her list for a long while.
~Well, that sucked.~
Topaz broke the mental connection as soon as Namor was free, swimming a few feet back from everyone to try and put some space between her burned shields and the emotions. Her head was pounding. "Hell," she muttered, rubbing her temples. "I should've just gone to school today. So how much longer are we stuck looking like this?"
"The fishy bits will go away once we get out of the water," Amanda said, sounding tired but still somehow buzzed. "We just need Clint to haul us out."
Naked, in the middle of the ocean, still not completely human, and with a migraine quickly blooming - if Topaz hadn't been annoyed when she had been dragged out of her library, she certainly was now. Considering Jean and Namor were right there, though, still very not even close to looking human, she was doing her best to keep her annoyance down. "'Kay," she said, struggling to keep her voice from chattering as she looked at Amanda. "So what do you need me for?" The words were a lot less combative than they had been when the Seftons had come to fetch her.
"Whatever these squid things do, they've got a pretty firm grip on their personalities as well as their heads," Amanda said. By contrast she was much perkier and cheerful than Topaz, mainly due to the influence of Key West, not so very far away. "I can work on getting the squids off, but it's going to need some cooperation from them. So, if you do your empathy thing, maybe see if you can't encourage their people parts to come back? Jean first, and then we can do Namor all together." She snorted. "Oh, that came out so wrong."
"Next time we're going to a grumpy city," Topaz informed Amanda, rubbing her temples. At least she wasn't singing again. "Alright, I'll see what I can do with Doc Jean." She was tempted to add a joke about letting her drown if she passed out from exertion, but it didn't seem quite as funny after the mental attack Jean's squid had gone at her with. Instead she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and slipping easily into her head. Finding the human mind was a lot easier this time, and Topaz was grateful for that as she started to pry them apart, trying not to pay attention to any other emotions - they would just be distractions.
Jean felt torn, rather literally. The human side of her wanted this damn thing off, while the creature buried deep inside knew something was amiss and started to fight back, ramming itself at the vestiges of her mental walls. Jean tried to find her focus, and help Topaz as much she could, lending her own emotions to help bury the influence down. She was reminded of a scene in the Alien series where they managed to jettison the Alien off into space.
For a moment, she thought of how easy it would be to let go, let the creature take back over, and kill them all..or at least, that was what she wanted the squid to think. Just when she had the squid's defenses lowered and ready to take back over....she hit the airlock doors, hammering it with a telepathic blast that stunned it.
It was now or never. Amanda pulled in as much power as she could from the city, tamping down the more frivolous urges it was giving her, and wove it into the spell. "Hold still," she told Jean as she approached the woman, hands glowing blue-white with magic. "This might pinch a little." And with that, she lay her hands on the squid.
Two weeks ago if you told Jean she was going to be in this situation she...probably would've believed you. Still, with all the weird/horrible things that had happened, this was pretty damn high up there. Did that help? Hell fucking no.
The brightness of Amanda's hands made Jean flinch and she was forced to close her eyes. As the magic flowed, she could feel something start to turn, like a key twisting in a lock. The squid's hold quickly loosened.
Of course, the break in the spell made the squid react in kind, and it started to squirm, it's tendrils lashing out violently and wrap itself around her neck, anything to stay right where it was. Jean began to choke, reaching up to grab the squid. She could feel it's cold, slick rubbery skin as she grabbed onto it.
The emotions coming from the creature came to a fever pitch...anger, desperation, even....fear, and Jean almost felt a faint swell of pity--almost. The main tendrils were longer than the smaller ones, and it took a few tries, but she was finally able to yank them all the way out, tossing the squid away, where it slammed against the side of the boat, then wriggled around looking for somewhere to go.
But Jean was more preoccupied with trying to breathe as she took in massive gulps of air in between coughing.
It was honestly a testament to how fucked up things were that this still wasn't the weirdest thing Topaz had ever seen. But then, it was hard to top the end of the actual world. "One down," she said, eyeing Namor warily. It had been harder to break him free of the squid's influence. What was getting it off him completely going to be like.
The once-king had been giving the ladies their own space, observing impassively from afar. Even with the squid attached to him, he struck an imposing figure. Just one with sharp teeth and too many questionable tentacles to be found this close to the surface. As Topaz's eyes met his own, he finally spoke. "So. Now then."
Then Namor proceeded to try and remove the squid from his own head without the magic part of "magical removal." To him, logically, it made sense: he could survive in the sea or the ground already. Being Atlantean, and royal, he was thereby superior to the ill-suited Doctor Grey. It should be easier.
... and to his credit, he got a little bit to tear before he was stuck convulsing as the squid tried to reassert control.
"Hey, woah, stop!" Amanda moved to his side to grab one of his wrists - ineffectually, she knew, but it was more of a accentuation of her words. "You'll do yourself damage if you just rip it off. Hold on a second."
Jean tried to make a sound to speak up in between coughs, but nothing came out except for a few scratchy sounds. Her throat burned in agony every time she swallowed. It'd probably take a bit more time to heal. Letting out a sigh of frustration, she swam back over.
~I can link you, me, Topaz so that we can help bring more of Namor to the surface. I can sense the animal. Its hold is still pretty firm, even with what we did earlier.~
"Especially when it feels threatened. Okay, sounds like a plan. Namor, hold still, for the love of whatever."
Topaz didn't generally resent her empathic abilities as much as she did her magic. Today she just hated both. ~Yeah, great,~ she grumbled at Jean. Her head was starting to pound. ~Let's get this over with.~
Going into Namor's mind was just as weird, if slightly less messy, than it had been the first time. Topaz closed down as many parts of her own mind as she could, lest anyone catch something she didn't want them to see, and focused on the not-squid part of Namor's mind. She could already feel it preparing to fight back. Great.
He came here to party, and honestly Namor was feeling so attacked right now. He could, however, handle it -- the man had been pulled from a time where war was a bit more hands-on. Namor was ready to be squids-off. If it was possible to give a mental equivalent of a thumb's up, he took the reigns in holding the squid's presence still as Topaz and Jean entered his mind. This smoothed the waters for the women to operate, and the man's body stilled, still tensed, in the water as they began their work.
With Namor relatively immobile and somewhat calmer and cooperative, Amanda cast the spell again, laying blue-glowing hands on the squid attached to the Atlantean's face. The creature squirmed and thrashed, trying to keep its grip, but the spell, powered with a fresh burst of energy from Key West, was too much for it, and its grip began to loosen.
While the battle was every bit as fever pitched for the squid as it had been for Jean, Namor's mental stillness -- a product not of calm or serenity, but instead the hyperfocused aggression of a warrior matched with every frustration he had about being bottled and tossed into a new world -- encouraged the spell. The squid released its tendrils, floating free.
After a cursory glance to make sure Namor was okay, Jean kept an eye on the dislodged squid as it slipped below the surface, maintaining a telekinetic wall around them in case it tried to go facehugger again. She felt nauseous--both figurative and literally--and incredibly ready to go home. The idea of vacationing here was off of her list for a long while.
~Well, that sucked.~
Topaz broke the mental connection as soon as Namor was free, swimming a few feet back from everyone to try and put some space between her burned shields and the emotions. Her head was pounding. "Hell," she muttered, rubbing her temples. "I should've just gone to school today. So how much longer are we stuck looking like this?"
"The fishy bits will go away once we get out of the water," Amanda said, sounding tired but still somehow buzzed. "We just need Clint to haul us out."
