FATIGUE! Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures!

[dragonspooker]

Characters: Lina Inverse and you!
Setting: Floor 25 - The Meadow Floor. Late morning.
Format: Starting in prose, can follow if you prefer action.
Summary: After a particularly trying month, and hearing about what happened to everyone else, Lina's had enough.
Warnings: Attempted suicide/mass homicide of tower inhabitants which will fail, punishment via electric shock, and one mentally unstable Lina.

A grassy meadow amid the tower - it's peaceful. Lina stands among it, about twenty feet from the stairwell, carrying a glowing blade in one hand. Her shoulders rise and fall shakily - she's having trouble breathing steadily. It's not a physical issue - it's her attempting to work up the nerve to do something. Her last attempts had failed - the Dragon Slave hadn't even scratched the tower, but there was one more trick up the sorcerss' sleeve.

It was something that she was warned off of doing before she came here. To cast the Giga Slave, that ran the chance of destroying the world, according to Sylphiel. Normally, this was a terrible thing, but here? All the trauma and suffering she's been through, as well as seen others go through - it was too much. Maybe their worlds really were destroyed. Who knows. All she knew that as she saw things currently, gambling on destroying this world seemed a lot better alternative than putting up with this any longer.

She raises the sword, holding it horizontally in front of her - a wind kicks up around her, and black energy sheaths the Sword of Light's blade in darkness.

"Darkness beyond blackest pitch, deeper than the deepest night,
King of darkness who shines like gold upon the sea of chaos,
I call upon thee, and swear myself to thee!
Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed,
By the power you and I posse--"

Lina's words are cut off by the magic suddenly fizzling out. The sword's blade flickers into nothing, and the weapon itself vanishes from her hand. The wind stops, but a different energy kicks up - electricity from her collar delivers an exceedingly painful reminder that disobedience is not tolerated, putting her on her hands and knees. Pained screams come from her as the shocks course through her, and her body jerks thanks to the voltage coursing through her.


_{[OOC: Feel free to jump in at any point in this - before she starts the spell, during, or after, whatever. And as an addition, here's a clip of said spell to give an idea of what your folks will be walking into.]}

Comments

[beknightedheroine]

That feeling of dread that had been instilled in Sayaka, after their exceedingly brief conversation over the network yesterday - that inspired her into forcing something she knew she'd have to do soon anyway; actually check up on Lina herself. _{It wasn't like she was worried, or anything, but--} she can't help but think we're all in this together.

She knew the iridescent sun that was Lina's magic pretty well, by now - it was a simple matter of grasping her soul gem in her palm, and playing a match of blazing hot and cold. Actually being able to hold her soul gem again, too... it was nearly comforting. She'd nearly gotten to the meadow on that merit, when alarm bells of a truly monstrous amount of magic being brought to bear went up and she was certain where to go.

She powers up the stairwell, cape whipping behind her like a wild wind had been set to it - then stops, dumbstruck, when she catches sight of Lina. That black sword, that booming voice chanting the last bits of an extremely foreboding incantation - what was she doing?

[dragonspooker]

"--call upon thee, and swear myself to thee!
Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed,
By the power you and I posse--"

And then as if someone switched off the magic, that bright, shining beacon that Sayaka could feel fizzles out. The darkness whipping out from the Sword of Light disappears, and the blade with it. For half a second, Lina appears confused, but then lets out an awful scream as electricity wracks her body, knocking her to the ground in a pained, twitching heap.

[beknightedheroine]

And then all that magic is gone, and Sayaka's heart skips a few beats.

That scream is what puts her into motion - "Oh damn to everything, what went wrong!" - and she's ran to Lina in an instant or two, eyes livid to match her panic. What can she even do, she's not a healer herself, she's just gets healed...!

_{"Y-you weren't doing all that build up just to get knocked down like this, right?"}

[dragonspooker]

There's a bit before Lina can actually answer - the shocks stop after a few seconds, and it takes some time after that before the pain isn't too much to talk through. She pushes up to her hands and knees, albeit shakily.

_{"...it didn't work..."}

[beknightedheroine]

"..."

Sayaka's not got the least idea what Lina was trying to do, but she's hurt and Sayaka's no healer, so -

"How 'bout you tell me whatever your crazy plan was once we can get you to the infirmary, huh?"

Afterward

[sawthelockdown]

Asako is traveling the tower right now because, well, best to learn as much about your surroundings as possible when you're in a new place. She is one floor away from where Lina is when she senses a metric ton of magic being built up and then...forced to dispel, which sets off all kinds of alarm bells in her head. She rushes over with all the speed she can muster, and when she gets there - well, there's nothing she can do, right?

Wrong.

She's not even sure it will work, but the Overlord has tricks up her sleeve as well. She raises one hand to eye-level and then, with the intent of calling in her mind, snaps her fingers.

Her black cape ruffles a bit in the sudden breeze caused by Norn's arrival. Unfazed and with her eyes still on the suffering redhead, she says quietly, "Norn. Heal her if you can."

The demon nods with all of her heads and proceeds to cast a healing spell on Lina.

[dragonspooker]

It's about a minute after the spell starts before Lina stirs. She lets out a pained noise, and her eyes ease open.

Grass. Grass from... The meadow floor, that's where she was. She pushes up, and there's pain still in her, but she doesn't feel as wiped as she normally does after that spell - and her hair's still red.

Lina shakes her head, knocking the daze out - she's still here. She's still in this damned tower. The spell failed - and not in a beneficial way! She shakes a bit, then balls up a fist and punches the ground, and she finally speaks, half-choking on the words that come out: "DAMN IT!"

[sawthelockdown]

Asako's eyebrows shoot up at this. Not an unsurprising reaction, considering that... "Your spell failed, huh?" Her voice is quiet as she says this, her head tilting slightly in curiosity. If Lina turns to look at her, all she'll see is a tiny girl with no judgement in her face - just curiosity. What were you planning to do, stranger?

...oh, and there's a creature that looks like three women and a clock hovering nearby, but shhh. We don't talk about the elephants in the kitchen.

[dragonspooker]

Lina does look at the source of the voice - someone unfamiliar. Well. Even if the Tower's knocked her pride to the ground, she still has it, so she's not going to break down in front of a stranger.

Though she may do a piss-poor job of trying not to.

"...yeah, it didn't work," comes her answer. It's quiet, and stilted - and looks like it hurts to even say it.

She goes to cut her eyes away from the other girl, and sees Norn. Lina will gladly point out the elephant in the room if it'll get unwanted attention off of her. "What the hell is that?"

[moontothetide]

Seeing as how the meadow is one of Tara's favorite floors, favorite places, where she would come and think and meditate and be at peace before everything happened...coming down into what looks like a nightmare made form makes her feel as though all the air has been cut from her lungs.

She doesn't know the specific spell, but Tara is a witch, and witches have a sense for things. She knows that whatever magic she's just walked in on is evil beyond...no, not evil. Something worse than evil. Something above evil.

She has to stop it, but...what power does she have now that would stand a chance? Her mind is a blank. She can't bring up a single incantation, let alone one that would be remotely helpful.

...and then Tara remembers the ceremonial knife hanging on her hip. And she draws it, and she sets to work pushing her way through the wind.

She's halfway across the meadow when the spell ends and Lina's chants are replaced by screams. That sets Tara to running, and not just because she suddenly can. "H-Hey!" She drops to her knees next to Lina, locating the source of her pain almost immediately.

Able to muster up just a fraction of a bit more thought, now, Tara musters up the incantation for the spell to ionize the air, hoping to draw the electricity more easily out of Lina while it's still being produced.

[dragonspooker]

The spell pulls off some of the excess, but the majority still courses through Lina's body for a minute or so. After all, it wouldn't do well for the punishment system to be easily counteracted by others in the tower.

Once it stops, though, Lina's body goes limp with a faint whimper - she's still alive, just drained and pained.

[moontothetide]

Tara - now with her hair standing completely on end due to the massive amount of charges in the air - takes care to check Lina's breathing when she collapses, and then her other vital signs. She finds enough to assure her that the girl's life isn't immediately in danger, and sighs in mingled misery and relief.

"What were you doing...?"

[dragonspooker]

_{"...trying to get rid of this stupid place."}

Lina's voice is quiet and weary, but there's still frustration in it. Frustration at the tower for being the way it is and what it's done, and frustration at herself for failing and not being able to do anything to stop the people doing this to everyone.

[aurous]

Further in the meadow, an ex-dragon priestess wakes from the crackling energy of the spell. She sits up from her recline in the grass (peaceful naps were a necessity after the bullshit that was the past month) and blearily shifts to pinpoint the source. As soon as her eyes lay on Lina and the swirling mass that is no spell she can recognize, but fills her with dread and apprehension anyway, Filia bolts up.

"Miss Lina, what are you doing this is not how we solve problems!" she shrieks, each word jumping an octave until her voice peaks at maximum shrillness, but nope, too late. Lina's screams summon a panicked cry of her own and she rushes over, falling to her knees next to the downed sorceress, gloved hands hovering of her shaking body.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear-- "Miss Lina? Miss Lina!"

[dragonspooker]

With time, the shocks cease, as does Lina's pained cries and twitching, and her body goes limp. There's a faint whimpering noise, and her arms weakly lay over the top of her head.

"...don't gotta shout, Filia, I'm right here," she answers.

Drained and defeated, but alive.

[aurous]

No, everything is a shouting matter! Volume solves all problems!

As soon as the shocks taper off, Filia grips Lina at her shoulders, firm, but not uncomfortable. Anchoring, perhaps.

"Are you all right?" she asks, voice softer, but no less panicked. Dumb question, she knows it. "What was that?"

[dragonspooker]

If that was true, Lina could have already saved everyone, fixed their worlds, and given them all ponies with all the yelling she's done since she got here.

"...no," comes the answer, shortly after her eyes crack open, and she realizes where she's still at. "My trump card - but it didn't work." She's already limp in Filia's hands, so she can't quite go limp-er, but she makes no effort to sit up properly.

[restitchtime]

[Rose hadn't come looking for Lina, had only been on this floor coincidentally. she'd watched the darkness descend with wary curiosity (anything that reminded her of Derse was automatically treated with suspicion) and then approached a little further as whatever that was failed.

her mouth is twisted into a sardonic smile as she claps several times, tone acerbic.]

Nice light show. Do we get fireworks afterward or are you all out of juice now?

[dragonspooker]

[Even before the shocks end, Lina's temper flares - she's already at the end of her rope, and having failed is bad enough, but someone giving her crap for it? Well, that might be better for her than she realizes - she pushes up, and cuts a pained, but particularly venomous glare at Rose. She's not aware of who this girl is, exactly, but that's probably for the best.]

G-gimme a minute, an' I'll make you see stars...!

[restitchtime]

[Rose puts a hand to her chest in sardonically overdone fear]

Oh no, I'm absolutely terrified! What are you going to do, hit me with a little spark of static electricity?

[dragonspooker]

[Just keep goin', Rose. Kick the poor girl while she's down - no way will that come back to haunt you at all...

Lina pushes up to her feet, slowly and shakily - and very obviously pained. Thankfully, the shocks seem to be tapering down.]

No, I'll just hit you!

[WHO WANTS BACKTAGGING]

[sorewahimitsudesu]

Upon realizing that Lina came from well before she had met him, Xellos had been keeping his distance for a few weeks. He needed to observe both her overall actions from a distance and those that inhabited this Tower before even deciding how to make a move, or if there were any available strings to pull.

Very few beings beside his own kind and the dragons in his world had the potential that Lina Inverse did. For that matter, there probably wasn't anyone of any race who had that potential. So, if anyone could bring this place down upon its head...

The stirring energies native to his world were very recognizable when they started on the level that Lina had been attempting. Such a display easily caught his attention... as did its resulting failure.

Despite annoyance, Xellos kept to the shadows and away as others who were alerted by Lina's attempt checked on her. The moment there was a free moment, though, Xellos dropped his silence and approached, slowly clapping.

"Well, well. That was at least an impressive attempt, Miss Lina."

I DO I DO

[dragonspooker]

Lina doesn't move for a while, she just leans against the side of the stairwell. She's not quite sure how she feels about this weird guy supposedly from her future - she does know, however, that the condescension is not sitting well. It gets a scowl out of her, and she levels a rather harsh look at the priest.

"Attempt doesn't mean much since it didn't work."

[sorewahimitsudesu]

"No, that it did not."

He swept toward her, and then past her.

"Actively, anyhow. It does say a lot about what can be reached from our world, though..."

He raised a finger, tapping his chin in evident contemplation.

"And yet, you almost got there."

[dragonspooker]

Lina starts by making an annoyed noise, though Xellos' words make her think a bit.

"...y'know. The other times I tried something like this, I actually got to complete the spell and set it off. They've never stopped me in the middle of one..."