Your Loyalty Or Your Stubbornness

Elodie/F/Jellyfish "C-crap! Did I sting you? Sorry!!!!" M!A: None

[graupel-deactivated20160401]

  Go ds, oh gods this couldn’t be happening. Everything would be okay, they reassured theirself, they’d get Elodie home and she’d be fine by tomorrow. They just have to… somehow… bring her home. But how? The familiar was too big for the witch, they couldn’t possibly be able to carry her that far! Maybe.. - shit it was so hard to think, they were still freezing from the water.

   “No…. n-no Ellie you’d never fail me, you hear..? Now hang on, I’ll make a nice fire for you when we get home…”

They really didn’t have much time, Elodie needed to be home NOW. God dammit, why did Rae have to be so small?? …Ok ay okay, an idea.  They pull away from the familiar a moment and raise a hand to the ground, nearby snow and ice rushing into the air and coming together. In less than a minute an object formed, a simple sled enough to carry Elodie with. It wasn’t exactly the best thing they’ve made, but it would work well enough for the situation at hand. Quickly, but carefully, they get Elodie onto the sled and start pulling.

[hellajelliefish]

Elodie barely felt when the sled started to move. She really just wasn’t built to handle this kind of weather at all. She pulled Rae’s cape tighter around herself, trying to keep in at least a little bit of warmth.

“No....Rae...I promised I’d protect you...” 

She nearly has to shout above the noise of the sled. 

“But...I lost to Kahra...I wasn’t strong enough...”

[graupel-deactivated20160401]

  .. She moved, that was a good sign. She was still alive! Once they make sure they have a good hold on her, they quickly resurface and pull her up on the ice once more. G od, they may be a winter witch, but even the icy waters are a bit too chilly for them. It’s not as big as a problem as Elodie, but they probably couldn’t stay in it for more than an hour.

   Alright, that’s one problem solved, but heat would replace it. Rae isn’t exactly the warmest of witches, and this environment didn’t really provide a lot, so they’d have to somehow get to their home. For now, they grab their cape and wrap it around Ellie to hopefully do something. It wasn’t the thickest of clothing, but it was better than nothing.

“Ellie, can you hear me? Ellie?? Please, try to stay awake, I’m gonna try to get you home!”

[hellajelliefish]

     She’s free of the cold water now, and wrapped in something warm and soft. Even so, she shivers, barely able to hold on to consciousness. Someone is holding her in their arms. She tries to open her eyes, but her vision is blurry. She can hear Rae calling her name, even though it sounds like it’s miles away. She would know that voice anywhere.

“R...ae?”

     She can barely raise her shaky voice above a whisper. God dammit, why is she so susceptible to the cold? Even after all this time, she’s still easily disabled by these low temperatures. Stupid! How did she ever hope to protect Rae like this?

“I...failed...forgive me...”

[graupel-deactivated20160401]

   That was… a very loud scream. From the sound of it, it was probably Ellie who had called out to the witch. At the moment, they were simply in their little home building small snowmen out of boredom and loneliness on the table. Her familiar Elodie had stepped out for a bit, and she hasn’t been back in some time. 

   Her voice sounded slightly panicked, and they KNEW that the jellyfish wouldn’t do that for nothing. Something must’ve been wrong. Grabbing their cape off of the chair, they dash out the door to find her.

  It doesn’t take them long to reach the source of it, and it was clear something went down here. There were holes all over the ice, possibly from some sort of small blade, snow thrown everywhere. From the look of it, a fight happened not too long ago. But where was Ellie..?

   That question wouldn’t stay unanswered for long, when the witch nearly fell into a rather large hole in the ice. There was another one not too far, about the same size. Before they could step away from it and continue their search, something caught their eye. A shadow was there… a person from the look of it….. Wait.

They quickly unclip their cape and throw it aside, dropping straight into the water after their familiar.

[hellajelliefish]

     Black spots are beginning to appear at the corners of Ellie’s vision, and she’s losing feeling in her extremities. Where the hell is Rae? If something doesn’t happen soon, Ellie is going to freeze!

     Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie catches sight of something moving. Her reactions are already sluggish from hypothermia, but she manages to turn and grab hold of the object. It looks like...fabric? Is this her salvation?

[asseassin]

      She tenses at the cry her former teammate gives out, eyes widening at the sight of the ice lighting up. Dammit, did she really have to do that? Rae didn’t need to be brought into these fights. Kahra wanted them to stay out of the fights not just for their safety, but also because she knew how much the witch disliked that they were still fighting, at all..

“What the hell is wrong with you? If ya really thought I was so dangerous to them, why would ya call her to come here? …Tch. This fight was over too quickly, anyway. If ya wanna be the one who keeps her safe, make sure you can beat me, next time. There’s way worse people out there than me, y'know..”

      With her warning given, she redirects the knives once more to aim at the ice beneath Elodie’s feet. There weren’t any wires directly beneath her, so breaking the ice would send her directly into the water. And if Rae was going to show up here.. She makes incredibly quick work of cutting the wires and collecting her knives, running off seconds later to break her own ice and swim away.

      …Great, and now she was in a terrible mood.. If she went back, she’d have to be certain to see Claude…

[hellajelliefish]

     The ice below Ellie splinters, and before she even has time to think about it, she’s plunged into the freezing cold water. 

      A fun fact about jellyfish is that they are in no way built to handle colder temperatures, especially not freezing arctic water. Ellie can already feel her consciousness slipping away. She desperately hopes that Rae heard her cry for help, because otherwise she’ll probably freeze to death.

[asseassin]

      Ah, that didn’t take long at all. She’d have to give props to her former teammate for figuring it out just like that.

“Shihihi..figured it out, did ya?”

      It didn’t really matter at this point. With how many had been set, and with how she wouldn’t know where they would be until it was too late, there wasn’t much that the jellyfish could do. If she could pull one more trick out of her sleeve, she might be in the clear, but if she didn’t do it quickly..

     Replenishing herself with more knives from her pockets, she prepared for one last hurrah. Twisting and pulling new wires, rows were once again sent out to hover over Ellie, forming multiple arcs that were ready to be sent down and skewer the jellyfish.

"It was fun, Ellie, but I’m afraid l’ll have to end it here. Anything you want me to say to Rae when I visit them?”

[hellajelliefish]

     This was bad. This was really, really, really bad. She had to think of something, and she had to think of it now. If only she had learned those shield spells! She mentally berated herself for her lack of foresight, but continued racking her brain for a solution.

    Maybe....if she could just get a signal out fast enough...It was a gamble, but what other option did she have?

“I’ll tell them myself. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!”

     Her scream was backed up by a sudden burst of light, artificially amplifying her cry for help to echo across the entire floe. With any luck, the ice witch would arrive long before Kahra had a chance to kill her. And if not...

     Well, at least Rae would see Kahra for what she really was.

[asseassin]

      She didn’t know what would come from the spell Ellie chanted. This was new, and it had her on edge. What comes after is quick, and she can’t make it out quite quickly enough to fully dodge. Though it doesn’t knock her completely off her feet, it does send her off balance, and she fumbles a little to regain it.

      That spell was going to be something to watch out for. If she allowed it to really knock her off her feet, it might give Ellie an advantage in the battle..especially if it ended up disorienting her. She couldn’t take it lightly, anymore. Moving quickly before another beam could send her upward, she began working on setting her trap.

      Multiple knives are thrown, set after set, landing and sticking both near and far from the jellyfish, but with wires slowly beginning to form an inescapable cage–without one shredding themself on the wires, that is. Even if Ellie moved from her spot, now, she’d begin to run into the wires that had been set around her. If she didn’t move, then she’d never escape, and her time was quickly running short.

[hellajelliefish]

     Ellie began to move forwards, but she didn’t get far before something cut into the skin of her arm and a few more of her stingers, shearing right through the fabric of her sleeve. Instantly, she froze, gears turning in her head.

“...Wires. You’ve laid down wires.”

    She couldn’t move. There was no way to know where Kahra had placed the wires, and one wrong move could do serious damage to her body. She had to think of some kind of battle plan....

[asseassin]

      Magic? She’d always had little bits of that. Ever since she’d joined with her witch all those years ago. Little bonuses that acted as boosters, and nothing much more. She was fine with that, it wasn’t like she needed high magic spells to destroy her enemy. She was also fine with letting Ellie continue to delude herself into thinking her wires were also magic. She wouldn’t confirm or deny it, but simply snicker once again at her.

“Oho, tryin'a play dirty, now?”

      She knew where that stinger was meant to go. It was a clear shot that she was trying to go for, but it left two options for the shark. On one hand, she could let the other hurt her, and then the real fun could begin, or she could play on her delusions.

      Or maybe, she could just do a little bit of both. It was only one hand, after all, and with her idea, she might just get that hand back, anyway. Allowing the other’s tentacle to wrap around one wrist–and giving a shaky, wheezy laugh at the pricks of pain it gave her–her other wrist gave a flick, and a few other knives were sent towards the now attached appendage.

      Though the knives make a clean slice, they go right past the stinger, instead diving to stick into the ice below. However, the stinger still gets cut. While the shark knows the cuts were caused by the wires attached to the knives, it would look on the outside as though the air the knife cut through had instead cut the stinger. Let’s see just how much she can trick the other’s eyes.

“Come on, Ellie..if you’re really gonna fight me, you’d better make it interesting for me..”

      She says this with a chuckle before pulling off and tossing away the side of the stinger that had remained on her wrist–now red, but now accepted, enjoyed, and forgotten.

[hellajelliefish]

     Elodie recoiled a few inches in pain, drawing her injured stinger back towards herself. She grimaced and set her teeth. She couldn’t afford to allow the pain to get in the way of this fight. That was one mistake she wouldn’t be making again.

“Guh...Believe me. I’ll give you the fight of your life. You’re not the only one with magic tricks.”

     She chanted something under her breath and pressed both hands to the ice at her feet, a bright glow spreading from her to a spot directly under Kahra before condensing into a beam shooting upwards. If not avoided, the spell would hopefully knock the shark right off her feet.

[asseassin]

      It bubbles, it boils, and it builds. Her rage begins to reach the peak, the breakpoint, getting closer and closer to pouring over with every accusation that gets spit out of the other’s mouth. The insults and being called a ninny and a coward, however, is what ends up sending her over. Sharp teeth grit together tightly, and hands reach for and grab the knives sitting in her pockets.

       Though it’s clear to anyone that would look that she was absolutely pissed, if they only looked to the wide, sharp grin that spread across her face, they might could be deceived. And really, she probably was going to actually enjoy herself in this fight. It would all depend on if she were victorious, in the end.

“Aahaha..no, no..not Rae. They don’t have to fear me.. But you..maybe you could do to at least learn your place.”

       Pulling the knives from her pockets, she gathers them together in her hands, before preparing them for the surges of attacks. Incredibly thin and nearly invisible, but sharp as the weapons they were attached to, she turns her fingers to lead the wires into their many, convenient positions. A few rows of her seemingly floating knives are sent out to surround her target before diving down. She was already seeing red, but she was staying level enough to form a plan. If the other dodged the knives, that was fine. She could always send more out..set a trap, if she really wanted to..

“Shihihi..you could even be my next demonstration!”

[hellajelliefish]

     The moment the knives are flung, Ellie throws herself out of their path and drops into a crouch, one hand resting on the ground. Her eyes burn with intense rage, like a blue-green flame flickering just out of sight. 

“Floating knives? Don’t tell me you’ve picked up a little magic of your own. But you’re not the only one who’s trained since we last met, bitch. I had to, you know. To protect Lady Rae from people who might want to hurt them.” 

     A stinger whipped forwards, aiming for Kahra’s dominant hand. If she could injure it enough to stop the shark from throwing any more knives, she might be able to turn the fight in her favor.

“People like YOU!”

[asseassin]

      She used to fear those stingers. As a child, she did everything she could to avoid them, as if one touch could mean her death. Now, she saw them float out in the jelly fish’s tension, and she only glared. She’d ditched her fear many years ago, the moment she actually felt one of those stingers wrap around her arm and pull her away from her witch. A misunderstanding, a fight, and an eventual simulation to build a resistance to those stingers. She’d never lose another fight against the former teammate.

       The response she actually gets, however, is what finally sets her off. It was always the accusation that pushed her over the edge and into the boiling rage that sucked all sense right out of her. Her glare darkens, sharp eyes trying to cut the other familiar down where she stood.

“Right. Ya want me t’say it, don’t ya? Ya want me to look ya in the eyes and say how right you are, how your clouded judgement was clear, all along. That I had been standing above one of the most important people in my life, and that I was just a mere second away from cutting her down. If ya really wanna hear some bullshit like that, then you can stay in your damn dreamworld.”

“Open your ears and listen, dammit. Everything I did, everything I changed was for her. I knew there was gonna come a day when I had to protect her, and with how I was, I’d never be able to do that. What you saw was a demonstration. I was showing her what I’d changed and what I’d learned. Don’t you dare stand there and call me some kind'a traitor, when I’m the one who was tryin'a do good for her.”

      Sort of, maybe, kind of, not really. While her witch had definitely been the initial focus of why she wanted to become strong, her development and progress ended up being for a much different goal. She could definitely use her new skill set to protect her witch, but she was a killer. An assassin trained personally for the elite assassination squad of the most powerful mafia family in Italy. Her strength was always going to be centered there, and sadly, her family would most likely come before her friends–moreso now that these conflicts were happening.

[hellajelliefish]

     The stingers swayed in the air more and more the bluer the jellyfish’s face became as her rage started to build. She couldn’t believe that she used to call this shark a friend. How could she have been so stupid? She was just a bloodthirsty predator after all. But then again, what else would you expect from a predator like Kahra? Ellie should have never trusted her.

“A demonstration?! Ah, so that’s what it was. You wanted Rae to be afraid of you! You wanted to push them around with all your fancy new assassin skills and your pseudo-tough-girl speech patterns. When all along we both know that you’re still the sniveling ninny coward that you always were. In fact, even more so because now you’re trying to project this atmosphere of being tough and scary.”

“You’re not fooling anyone, though. Everyone can see you for what you really are. You didn’t grow stronger and you’re not protecting anyone. You became a fucking coward.  So yeah. I’d say you pretty much are a traitor, Kahra.” 

[asseassin]

      It had been a very long time since she’d visited the ice floe, as the last time had ended rather terribly in more ways than one. It was strange, at the very least, to meet up again with someone who had been a friend and ally for most of her life, now viewed as something of the opposite.

      She had put herself through a huge amount of change over the years, under the idea that she needed to become stronger to protect them, and completely change from what she used to be. Her friends were the most precious things she had in the world, and now here stood one. She’d wanted to protect her. She’d changed herself just so that she could become a protector–or, so she thought. She was a killer, and looked the part. Though it was a misunderstanding that had initiated their fight, it was the lingering tension and anger of a protective familiar and a hotheaded assassin that carried it on.

       For just a short moment, as she stares out at her old friend, she wonders if their conflict will finally settle and come to an–

“When the hell ‘re ya gonna drop it? What ya thought ya saw was not what happened, why can’t ya just get that?”

       She didn’t want to keep fighting every time they saw each other. But with this temper of hers, and how it was already flaring up, again.. The argument hadn’t even started, yet.. This one was going to turn out very badly.

[hellajelliefish]

     Hearing Kahra speak did nothing to ease Ellie’s tension. In fact, she only seemed to grow more on edge, her stingers beginning to float around restlessly instead of just lying by her side. After all, in her mind, she was dealing with the worst kind of traitor. A familiar who would attack her own witch....there was no forgiving someone like that. Not in a million years.

“Don’t fuck with me! I know what I saw! How could you, Kahra?! After everything Rae did for you, this is how you repay them?!”

     Ellie was beginning to look a bit blue in the face. She couldn’t help it, being around Kahra was just riling her up more. That grudge wasn’t going away any time soon.

[hellajelliefish]

pyjxmashark started following you

At first, Ellie had barely even recognized her old friend. All those years...they really had changed her, hadn’t they? The jellyfish had known this would happen, of course, but it was still. Just a bit jarring.

Kahra. Kahra, after all this time. What would she even say? What did one even say in a situation like this?

“...You. Get the hell out of my sights before I stick a stinger somewhere VERY unpleasant.”

Nailed it.

[hellajelliefish]

〚☸〛┉

“The warm weather is so nice! I feel like this northern climate is just a little more bearable.”

[hellajelliefish]

((Possibly gonna attempt to resurrect this blog. Again. I dunno, I’ll figure something out.))

[graupel-deactivated20160401]

⌊❄⌉ -

   “Hate finds a way”

[hellajelliefish]

〚☸〛┉

“If...you say so.”

[hellajelliefish]

                     ❝     these people are my family.                                        & if you hurt them in any way —— i will kill you.     ❞

[hellajelliefish]

〚☸〛┉

“Um...Lady Rae...? Isn’t it pretty hot near the sun? Where you’d have to be to fight it?”

[hellajelliefish]

〚☸〛┉

“IT’S GONNA BE SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!”