+thegoddessandhercaptain
thegoddessandhercaptain:
To say Pit’s landing had been bad was an understatement: it had been on a whole, unprecedented newly level of sucky. First, he was on fire. Generally, pretty bad. Second, the landing had been poorly executed (at best!), causing Pit to take the majority of the fall with his knees…Only for that to be followed up by the angel screeching to a sudden, painful halt. Then, still reeling from the landing, losing his already compromised balance and toppling face-first into the dirt. Third, he’d been screaming, so when he did make contact with the ground (again, face-planting into the dirt), he got what felt like a gallon of grass in his mouth (and a stinging clump of the stuff shoved into his eyes too for good measure). Oh, and fourth he was still on fire.
Between all of that, being half-blinded, half-choking, and currently on the ever noble quest of trying to put out his still-smoldering everything, Pit’s attention had been thoroughly diverted from his opponent.
Apparently, engaging in brief, mortal combat against the hungry flames that clung to his clothes, partaking in a valiant attempt to not burn to death, had been a mistake.
In the short the time he had declared himself not on the verge of being barbecued and looked up, somehow, someway, everything had gotten worse.
Much worse.
It wasn’t the appearance of the…the…whatever he was looking at that made Pit freeze up for far too long, his frantically darting eyes the only part of him that moved at all. No, it definitely wasn’t the appearance; Pit had fought countless monsters that sported more gruesome visages than the one before him…Okay, not countless, considering that more than half of the things he fought were just disposable grunts. And that he could probably count the number of monsters that showed this monster up in the “most terrifying monster competition” that he’s fought on one hand, but he’d still seen them and he’d still triumphed over them! And they looked worse than this! It wasn’t even the telegraphed strength that the intruder portrayed that unnerved Pit; since, you know, literal god killer over here. He was used to fighting big monsters with even bigger, more oppressive egos.
But this thing didn’t “feel” arrogant. It wasn’t cocky, it didn’t have a radiating, boisterously evil presence or anything.
No, this thing was dark. It was really, really dark. But as suffocatingly dark as this creature was - an immense but slow, creeping dark that oozed and dripped from its form - this unholy abomination (actually the most fitting description for it yet) felt more primal, more angry than anything else.
That meant it was really, really, really angry.
It took a good few seconds before Pit had fully regained his composure. It took a few more before he was back on his feet and ready to tussle with what he could only guess was a parasitic ghost monster of unfathomable evil, hellbent on the destruction of this poor vessel’s soul.
But that was only a guess. What wasn’t was that Pit needed to get rid of that thing, ASAP.
Not wanting to hurt what was almost certainly the unwilling host to this revoltingly dark monster, Pit aimed strictly for the beast’s raven-like head, hoping to maybe end this in a single blow - but considering how these fights usually go, that wasn’t likely. Hoping that maybe it wouldn’t use Dave as a literal human shield - but again, not likely.
Pit…hesitated for just a moment. Probably because of the scenarios that briefly swirled around in his head when the whole aforementioned human shield thing crossed his mind. Scenarios that often involved the arrow that held taut on his bowstring piercing Dave’s chest after the raven monster lifted him up to protect his foul little head, then throwing his useless pawn aside, Dave’s dead body flopping onto the ground like a rag…doll…
He needed stop thinking about this kind of thing and go through with the whole “SAP” part of “ASAP”.
Still just the slightest bit doubtful if this was even going to work in the first place (this was new, he hadn’t dealt with anything like this before), Pit refocused his sights on the parasite, managing to tear his eyes away from the clearly suffering human.
Look, don’t worry! I’m going to get you out of this mess just…ah, try not to become a human shield - that would be really bad, okay? Just whatever you do, Dave, don’t be a human shield!
After what felt like an eternity of back and forth in his mind, Pit fir-
~ Pit.
Or, uh, he would have fired, if it weren’t for that all-too familiar summon right behind him. He didn’t even have to turn around to see who it was …but he did anyway.
Lady Palutena! What are you doing here?
Oh no she didn’t look happy. …What are you doing-
~ Pit, I want you to get behind me right now.
Uh…okay? But I’ve-
~ Behind me.
It didn’t take a third order for him to comply. Confused, concerned, and honestly a bit terrified (Lady Palutena never made physical appearances like this), Pit shuffled quietly behind his goddess, letting the arrow die on the bowstring as he somewhat unwillingly sat back and watched.
~ …And we’re going to talk about you undoing your limiter when we return. Oh dang it.
Lady Palutena didn’t look back to see if he’d responded without words, her eyes (he guessed, since he was behind her) trained on the looming abomination.
~ Dave Strider. While it is within my knowledge that you had little agency over this…development, I’m afraid I can’t let this continue unimpeded.
~ You’ve become a danger to all around you, and this is completely unacceptable. I understand what I’m implying, but if I were to let you proceed in this state unchecked, you’d become a hazard to not only this world that you currently inhabit, but all circumambient worlds as well.
Lady Palutena raised her staff. ~ I hope you understand, but I can’t have a loose cannon dragging entire civilizations into your selfsame affliction.
~ This is for the best.
It was really in that moment did Dave finally understand what paralyzed by fear meant as he stared up at the monstrosity before him - that dark being that was apparently apart of him, if he guessed correctly. Intrusive thoughts bombarded him, forcing him down lines of thought he didn’t want to follow to the end. The creature, the reflection on his glasses...those could mean anything, not what his inner voice kept saying, he was fine. He wasn’t what he fought, he wasn’t what he hated, he wasn’t what killed his father.
He was human.
Right?!
Dave’s fingers dug into the fabric of his shirt, clutching at the spot above his heart. It still hurt. It ached and burned, but had subsided into a sort of background pain. He tried to swallow down his hesitation, but it only resulted in dryly doing so in that cliche move of anxiousness. He tried to take a step back, but the beast floated after. Great, just what he needed. More to complicate matters further. How could things get possibly worse?
The sound of Pit summoning one of his arrows was how.
Dave seized up, turning his back on the beast to face the angel behind him. His heart leapt into his throat, traveling further up to pound loudly in his ears. He instinctually backed away from the burning, blue bolt that rested on Pit’s bow, aimed initially at him. He remembered the startling pain that had accompanied the arrow that grazed his arm, blood still slowly seeping from the wound even still, and didn’t want a repeat. He feared a repeat. As the bow was directed upward (apparently at the creature, but it felt as if it were aimed at his head), he couldn’t react properly or accordingly. Something tugged at him to protect the thing behind him, but why would he do that?! Sure, it hadn’t attacked him yet - but that was the keyword! Yet! Dave was stuck between an envoy of light, and a horror of darkness and he just wanted be done with this.
But no, it had to get worse.
A brilliant burst behind OkCupid’s next model caused Dave to reel back, stumbling over his feet to get as far as humanly possible away from the clearly recognizable green haired goddess. Her radiance was intimidating, it was crushing, and tempted him to hop worlds to get away from it all. The threat of tripping on the ground and landing flat on his ass caused him to root his feet to the earth, a sickening cold settling in soon after. No. Nooo, no, no, no. There was no way in Heaven or Hell that he could fight a goddess like her. Wow, he was boned. He was thoroughly, and efficiently boned. Violently pegged, and ready for his humiliating death.
Words had even abandoned him in his plight to respond, and apparently deemed him guilty and left him hanging without any kind of support! His throat closed in on itself. He couldn’t voice his pleas, his defense against her accusations. The constricting feeling worsened the more she spoke, dread settling in his gut like a stone. He couldn’t respond. He couldn’t think to respond. He couldn’t physically respond. Even as she raised her staff, he couldn’t do anything to defend himself!
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He didn’t mean for this.
A flash of green interrupted his last sight, causing Dave to let out a startled, strangled yell. Where nothing once was now stood the auburn haired mechanic he felt so fondly for, a gunblade pointed in the direction of his assailants, the other planted heavily on the ground as a threat.
you have some FUCKING nerve stepping foot on MY property and attacking my BEST FRIEND!
im going to need you to step the FUCK down and back the FUCK off!!! i dont know what kind of nerve you have just deciding to enforce YOUR SHITTY EMPIRICAL REIGN of LIGHT IS ALL THERE IS AND ANYTHING THAT DOESNT AGREE WITH YOU MUST BE PUBLICLY AND HORRIFICALLY EXECUTED, or in this case TAKEN OUT BACK AND DEALT WITH, but that isnt going to FLY HERE!!!
DID YOU SERIOUSLY AND HONESTLY EXPECT TO JUST WALK INTO MY GODDAMNED SHOP AND GET AWAY WITH GOING AFTER NOT ONLY MY EMPLOYEE, NOT ONLY MY STAND IN, BUT MY BEST FRIEND SINCE FIRST GRADE???
NO
NO, HELL NO
FUCK NO
IM NOT GOING TO STAND HERE AND LET YOU DO THAT, AND THE CELESTIAL SKAIANS AS MY FUCKING WITNESS, ILL TAKE YOU ON IF I HAVE TO
IM NOT LETTING YOU FUCKING TOUCH HIM
