[PQ] [se] see the clock and its ticking away

Moving and drying the furniture was simple enough, but as Alys went to move one final cushion, she accidentally grabbed onto something decidedly not cushion-y. Now, normally, she might have yelped, or sworn, or thrown the tangleweed down, thinking it was a spider or some such thing, but with this particular little piece of fauna, she merely stared at it as though stuck in a trance.

Sascha, recognizing that something was wrong, bleated at Talyson with alarm, as though the courier could do something that she couldn't about the thing in her bonded's hand. Alys didn't notice. The room was starting to darken and blur around the edges, everything around her taking on a poisonous shade of purple -

Then Asra was there, asking sharply if Alys was alright, and the seer shook herself as though rising from a dream - or a nightmare. She dropped the tangleweed as though it had burned her and stared at it where it rolled about on the floor. "Don't touch it," she warned, her skin crawling. "It feels evil."

------

Alys tries to shake off the tangleweed!

alys glasse

waiting for the right mind to drive insane

Tangleweeds were something the courier was familiar with, but they didn't usually try to abscond with furniture in Tal's limited experience. While Alys and Asra dealt with the baby tangler inside, the Messenger hollered in consternation and grabbed the chair, instigating a tug-of-war with the wicked-looking bundle of ornery tentacles. "Hey! Vines off, y'purple palooka!"

Given his strength, it should have been an easy match. But as one of the tentacles transferred from the chair to his wrist the courier flinched and then froze, eyes starting to glaze over in spite of the chilly rain and the ongoing contest of wills and brawn.

If Boreal hadn't been watching the scene inside play out with mild concern and a protective wing over Sascha things might have gone worse outside. But as she felt the nightmare start to take hold of her companion's mind the dragon shook herself and then bounded out the door, opening her jaw to let loose a stream of fire at the purple weedball.

Tal jolted free of the trance as the tangleweed released him to roll frantically around in the mud, trying to put out the dragonfire that Boreal continued to pour onto it as Tal grabbed his chair and retreated back into the Temple.

---

Tal succumbs to the tangleweed but Boreal comes to the rescue and he tries to get the chair back inside!

Talyson, unfortunately, succumbs to the effects of the Void Tangleweed. While his dragon was able to blast it with a ferocious burst of flames, it didn’t entirely kill the creature. In retribution, it lashed out again towards Talyson. The attack is clean, and the courier is unable to do the task he had at hand. Instead, the chair will form into something familiar and oh, so close to him. In Talyson’s spinning mind, the void tangleweed is not trying to devour a chair, but devouring Boreal.

Trouble, faced with the tiny tangleweed, was able to destroy it in a burst of well-placed fire. While Alys is not facing near the trouble that Talyson is outside, she will have her own set of symptoms. In her periphery, enticing shadows dance that cause a deep feeling of unease in her gut. Is that paranoia? Does she know for certain that this attuned didn’t cause this, or her griffin?

Noah, finishing with the mopping and scraping and grooming of the room, came out to find trouble erupting (not the griffin). He heard Talyson scream outside and instinct had him bursting through the doors to defend his friend. Immediately upon seeing the tangleweed lash out at his friend, Noah ignited his Divine Opposition. He intended to end the weed and help Talyson.

---

Asra/Trouble are able to destroy the tiny void tangleweed that bit Alys.

Noah ignites his divine opposition.

Talyson and Alys will feel the effects of the tangleweed for another round!

Alys, with the size of the weed, will only see shadows dancing in the corners of her vision and a sense of unease. Talyson, on the other hand, hallucinates that Boreal is being eaten by the tangleweed. (This is a hallucination and Boreal is in no real danger!)

Void Tangleweed (infected variant - Hollowed Ground): The normally spherical and sentient Tangleweed has been corrupted by the void. Its limbs, once resembling branches, now writhe with shadowy tendrils. Touching the Void Tangleweed not only induces numbness but also opens a temporary connection to the void, causing unsettling visions and hallucinations.

the forsaken

He was worried about Alys, but the moment his vision blurred and shifted under the tangleweed's renewed assault, Tal turned his attention entirely to his companion's safety - or at least, what he thought was his companion. "Boreal!" he yelled, voice shifting from annoyed to frantic. One hand was grasped in a thorny tentacle, but his other was free, and he pulled his Dagger from his hip and slashed at the infected tangleweed in short, sharp, desperate strokes, trying to cut its arms loose from the chair his companion with no care for where it had grabbed on to his own wrist.

"Let 'er go!"

The dragon in question was growing agitated as she looked between her human and the chair he was protecting with his life. She shook her head, trying to push past the violet cobwebs that invaded her own thoughts from Tal's, and then she sent another burst of fire at the charred but still-writhing attacker, her primal focus identifying it as the main threat and seeking to save her companion from it.

---

Tal slashes at the tangleweed with his Special Delivery Dagger and Boreal blasts it with fire again!

The weed goes down in a burst of flames and Trouble does a loop in the air, trilling over his victory. Asra meanwhile. eyes Alys with concern, "It feels evil? Are you injured?" There still seems to be something amiss but the Attuned can't quite place it. From the corner of her eye, she sees Tal clearly having some kind of hallucination. Boreal seemed to have it handled at least.

Nudging Trouble behind her, Asra takes a step back, "Alys, can you hear me?" Would the younger woman start to hallucinate as well? Noah seems unaffected so it must be the effect of the corrupted weed.

~
Asra checks on Alys!

asra

Patience is a virtue

Shadows danced at the periphery of her vision, and Alys turned her head left and then right, as though she might be able to focus on them if she could just catch them at the right angle. What was going on? Was that Tal shouting? She tried to focus on her friend, worry catching in her throat, but everything felt strange, and dark, and who was this woman talking to her, and why wasn't she helping Tal?

Asra, his mind supplied moments later, as she stared at the woman in confusion. But they'd only just met, so why was she asking if Alys was all right? Why should she care? What if she was the one who'd started it - whatever it was? What if this was all her fault? Gods, what if this was the Sea of Dreams all over again, except this time Asra was the one who was bringing the nightmares, and there was still nothing she could do to stop it -

And so Alys stared at the other woman stupidly, too trapped in her own mind to come up with a reasonable answer.

------

Alys struggles.

alys glasse

waiting for the right mind to drive insane

Talyson, it seemed, was fueled by enough protective rage and the luck of the dice that there would be nothing standing in his way. He stabbed and sliced with all of his ferocity and the knife imbued with the damaging power that Ludo was so well known for adding to items, and the tumbleweed fell. Already damaged from Noah’s divine opposition, it didn’t take long for the courier’s work to be done. His dragon’s fire erupted over its sickly purple body, but the weed was already dead and beginning to wither when it was turned to ash.

Noah, keeping his arms up, called out to Tal. ”Hey, it’s ok. You got it.” He tried to reassure the Messenger of the tumbleweed’s defeat. His face contorted with concern as he sidestepped around Talyson to grab a piece of furniture. ”Let’s get this inside.” Then Noah helped the Messenger with the furniture, but kept close.

ASra’s presence, it seems, does not help Alys. However, in the moments that the men take outside to then come back in, Alys’ paranoia will start to fade, but the unease in her gut still lingers.

---

Talyson’s hallucination fades, but he will still experience some unease. Noah helps him bring the rest of the furniture in.

Alys’ paranoia will fade.

FINAL ROUND! Let’s set up the main room for patients, dry the last of what Noah and Tal brought in, and put in the last of the furniture from the bat room.

the forsaken

Slowly, Alys came back to herself.

Her paranoia was replaced by shame, and then concern. What was that? "Sorry," she murmured to Asra, a blush mantling her cheeks. "I don't know what came over me." Still, despite the psychosis disappearing, Alys couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had crept into her gut. "I'm okay now, I think," she lied. Later, when she and Tal were alone, maybe she'd talk to him about this horrible sensation that something, somewhere, was very wrong.

But for now, she turned her attention back to the task at hand. Uninterested in - and perhaps a little afraid of - the drying furniture, Alys turned her attention to setting up the main room. This time, she kept a close eye on what she touched, just in case.

------

Alys helps set up the main room for patients!

alys glasse

waiting for the right mind to drive insane

Tal didn't stop stabbing until the thing stopped moving and Boreal had lit it on fire that not even the rain could quench.

Which was about the time he realized that her fire was coming from someplace other than right in front of him.

His vision swam, shifting in and out of focus as he reoriented on a... chair??? where his dragon had been. Except now she was pushing her broad head up under his hand and leaning hard against his hip, and Tal dropped to his knees in the mud to wrap his arms around her, feeling a shiver that had nothing to do with cold run through him.

Noah's voice was both distant and nearby as the courier turned his head, cheek still pressed to Boreal's pale scales to peer up at the demigod as Noah stepped around him. His throat squeezed closed on his first words; one look at the demigod's face was enough to reveal that the older man hadn't seen what Tal had; hadn't felt it, a lie as real as what had struck him on the Sea of Dreams, and at that thought the courier jerked as if stung and thrust himself to his feet. One hand stayed on Boreal's shoulders as the pair dashed inside, gasping, and leaving the rest of the furniture to Noah.

"Alys?" he called, a frantic note clinging unflatteringly to his voice. "Alys, are you okay?"

He felt a fool when he saw her hard at work in the Temple, and his neck and ears flamed bright red. "I... sorry. It's just..." He trailed off, ducking his head away from Asra's gaze as he slunk past the woman and her gryphon to join the seer in the main room.

He gave his friend a grim, wild-eyed look as he silently set to helping her get the room set up, afraid to speak in front of the others for fear of looking crazy even as he kept throwing uneasy glances over his shoulder, as if expecting another tangleweed to jump out at any moment.

---

Tal freaks out and then helps Alys in setting up the main room for patients.

Asra gave a sharp nod, still giving the young woman ample space, "You are forgiven." Alys then left with Tal, and the Attuned averted her eyes to help the man save face. Illusions and hallucinations could be cruel. Especially in circumstances where they involved one's companion as the courier's seemed to have. Asra did have to grab Trouble to stop him from following after the pair, the small griffin wanting to fly over and comfort them.

Asra then refocused and moved to assess how dry the furniture and other items were. They seemed to be almost acceptable and so she began to fully dry them with a towel. She didn't expect it to take long.


~
Asra dries the rest of the things that the boys brought in!

asra

Patience is a virtue

With trepidation and fear creeping in the corners of their minds, and anxiety twisting their guts, Alys and Talyson worked quickly. Within an hour, the main room was put back together and more presentable for patients than Noah ever remembered seeing it.

Asra and Noah had just as much luck drying the furniture and putting it back where it came frrom. With Asra's creative direction and Noah's strength, the pair had very little strain between them or their bodies with this final task.

With all the tasks finished, and Noah noticing how tense and uneasy both Talyson and Alys were, the Forsaken gave Asra an apology, a thank you, and parted ways with her quickly before going to his friends.

"I'm sorry this caused so much trouble. You can stay with me tonight if you need to." He offered. "But I would like to heal you both with my magic." He said, glacier eyes waiting only a moment for permission before igniting the celestial dome. It glowed even as it grew through walls and, hopefully, pushed any and all darkness out of their minds and hearts.

---

FIN

Thank you! The Medical Wing of the Temple is back up in running order!

the forsaken