[KQ] not yet you're not

Flora

She misses, again, and it's all Flora can do to keep herself from just pressing her compass and disappearing from the sands in order to force her dad into doing something more than just standing there. (Yes, she knew what his new role was, but gods it seemed utterly infuriating right now compared to the damage she was used to seeing him capable of). Especially if the only thing keeping him from killing the stupid beast was her safety.

As Remi darts forward only to be suddenly joined by Ronin, Flora glances around for Jack. He looks about as bad as she feels, and gods if it doesn't have her stomach clenching with an entirely different sort of worry. Just as she's about to stagger in his direction—to do what she doesn't really know—the jaguar explodes. The only part of it that the queen is aware of, though, is the horrible burning blood that she's suddenly coated in. With a yelp the Doubletake sinks down to her knees, struggling to breathe and wiping frantically at her eyes.

I trace the evidence, make it make some sense
why the wound is still bleedin'

Code stolen from Queen Sky

but baby i've been here before; i've seen this room and i've walked this floor

It's years of having been together as much as it's the magic and attuned bond between them that lets the Taliesins work together as seamlessly as they do. As Ronin reaches to shove the beetle down the panther's throat, Remi is waiting to either help force it down or keep the feline from slinking out of their combined grip. Whatever else is happening around them, with Noah, with Flora, with the civilians, Remi can only trust in his husband as he always had.

As he always would.

The explosion isn't something the Bastion necessarily expects, but as he shields his eyes and hisses at the sudden pain speckling his body, he can't say he's surprised. The gasp that parts from his lips is born from the realization that with his magic released, the group wouldn't have been protected. Lifting his eyes—Flora, Jack, Noah, Sah, all seemed to be alive—he looked to Ronin, reaching out with a hand and the tether between them to silently communicate his appreciation and relief.

"Flora." Running to his daughter, Remi scoops her up in his arms, unfurling his wings in order to protect her from anything else that might come her way, or perhaps simply to keep her from view. "Healing fountain is that way." He calls to the two Halovians, before setting off that way himself.

His friends some, attack, and win. Noah landed in the sand with an oomph of air escaping his lungs. As the panther exploded and black and purple bile covered them, Noah covered his face with his arms. It burned his skin and he hissed, rubbing his arms quickly in the sand to soak it up and get as much off as he could. As he did, he ignited his magic. A bright, brilliant dome covered all of them and offered them healing…

But not for the one already in Mort’s realm. Glacier eyes fell on her and he asked, ”Does anyone know her?” She wasn’t Halovian, which was clear both for having the face of a stranger and for the horns and tail and marked her as an ancient. His eyes lift to Ronin and Remi in turn, and he nods, ”Thank you.” This was now the second time Flora had called to them when they were needed and Noah was there, so he was under no impression they did it for anyone in this circle but her. Still, they were friends, and Noah was thankful for them. His eyes went to Sah, then, and he asked, ”You ok?”

But most of his words are cut by Remi running to Flora.

Noah Olson

the forsaken

RONIN

the white knight

Honestly, at this point an explosion is something Ronin expects from these sorts of creatures - and it can feel free to explode, in his opinion, because he was assuming it would snap its jaws shut around his arm and rip it clean off. In comparison, this isn't nearly as bad - though he's obviously not smiling to be at ground zero for said explosion.

Having hit the ground and rolled, dismissing his wings for the added agility, he huffs back to his feet in the aftermath of the detonation, ears ringing, body aching all over. "I don't recognise her," he mumbles in response to Noah; he and Zefira had met previously, it's true, but there's something about being half digested that makes it difficult to get a good look. Swiping at the still burning goo that covers the side of his neck, it's with a grunt of annoyance more than anything that he raises a hand to both Sah and Noah, and then promptly heads for his husband and daughter.

"Let's go," he says softly, simply, touching a hand to Remi's back between his wings and setting off after him and Flora. It's with only a brief glance around to the sorry soul that had been spat out by the creature that he leaves the scene.

i'll get over it
i just gotta be dramatic first

JACK

Jack responds to no one, because he hears no one, not for a good, long while after the dust (goo?) settles and he can feel the true pain raking at his core and radiating outward. Everything feels muffled; moving, his magic, his mind. Sweat coats the back of his neck even as his lungs burn for air he keeps trying to catch, and he turns his head in time to see the others departing across the sand towards the healing fountain - not somewhere he intends to go, thank you.

The Ark is close, and with a stash of healing water in his cabin, she's home, and he has no intention of keeping himself from her deck for a moment longer.

But there is the matter of the corpse. He's uninterested in the pelt and claws - they can rot for all he cares. But the body?

"Her name was Zef," he rasps into the open air, too quiet, he thinks, for anyone to see him. Her face is hardly recognisable, but he'd met her mere days before, out in King's End. He recognises the horns, the tail, the clothing. And, reaching forward, it's with fumbling fingers that he does what he did with the unicorn back in Mourn - he takes the knife from his boot, and collects one of her horns as a memento.

It takes a while to get across the beach, but Jack does it on his own two feet, gods damn it. He's got a lot to think about after this.

you're the last of a dying breed; write our names in the wet concrete
I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Sah

Sah isn't exactly sure why or how, but the panther explodes. Grimacing, he wipes the back of his hand across his face before flicking away the gore. With his air and water magic, it's easy to get rid of the rest, but he still feels the need to take a long bath after his ordeal.

The group quickly disbands, the other Abandoned exiting as Ronin and Remi tend to their daughter. As they leave, Sah calls out to them both, "Thank you." Without their assistance, he has a sinking feeling that this day would have ended in further tragedy. The woman, Zef, is hard to look at. He'll put the word out so that her body is taken care of and brought to her next of kin.

Noah's question is met with a tired smile, his eyes scanning his friend with obvious concern, "Yes. Are you?" Eyeing the panther's body, Sah's brow furrows. It seems dangerous to keep anything tainted by the void but it might be needed. As such, the Wild Thunder reaches down and picks up the claws. He'll store them somewhere safe and away from any living contact when he gets home.

~
Sah takes the claws!

Void Sea Panther Claws| The claws of a void sea panther which can be crafted into a weapon by a god. The teeth will always cause an injury to the person wielding it on a failed attack.

I think therefore I am,
But what if all I do is bleed?

~fin