hadriel_logs | [closed] (loud screaming) BOAT PARTY

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[closed] (loud screaming) BOAT PARTY

Who: Taako, Lup, Barry, Kravitz, Magnus, Lance, and Nate.
What: 7 assholes, two boats, heading into the ocean for the chance to look for some buckwild stuff.
Where: Out at sea!
When: The entirety of the voyage; August 13th-September 3rd.
Warnings: Idk PG-13 levels of shirtlessness, curse words, maybe somebody ends up overboard at some point. Should be cool.

This is a catch all for the boat party for this group! Make top-levels for threads within this time and go friggin' wild. For convenience, I've provided 3 toplevel headers as general timeline assistance; as far as events of the voyage go, it'll basically be:

Week One: (August 13th-19th) Leaving the city and traveling to the fragment!
Week Two: (August 20th-26th) Still traveling, picking up whatever they find somewhere in here, since it's about the middle.
Week Three: (August 27th- Sept 3rd) Traveling and arriving home!

Feel free not to use exact dates, I sure don't care, this is just to help figure out if things happened before other things, OTHERWISE GO WILD

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[It just makes sense, doesn't it? Their threshold against magical objects is different over someone like Nate, without any of the century's worth of experience they have. They were able to resist the thralls of each other's relics too, weren't they? It all has to be related somehow. Their resistance is just too powerful.]

Not particularly. [She gives it a toss upwards, spiraling it like a football, before catching it with ease, lips twisted into a thoughtful line when nothing at all feels different. Where are the tingles of forbidden magic she's so come to love?] Maybe I just have to hold onto it for awhile. Y'know, let the evil magics really soak into my skin.

[a beat]

Or we could just ask Magnus to eat it, see if we get better results from that.

We’re not gonna ask Magnus t’eat it.

[Although it would be really funny.]

I guess just… tell me if y’feel anything? [Barry marks off a new section on his page, scribbles Lup’s name and an approximate time, describing the situation in quick bullet points, before his gaze returns to her. She looks normal. So does the fragment. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.] Maybe we could take turns. Five minutes each, observe each other. Could be just a human thing. Could be just where Nate’s from. Or, like y’said, could be exposure.

[As flippant as he’s been about the fragment, he keeps a close eye on her. Just in case.]

Boo. [Like she ever expected him to agree.

The elf watches as her husband quickly jots down a few notes, the corner of her mouth twitching into a grin at the sight of her own name. It's been awhile since they played guinea pig with one another, taking turns to test out each other's latest theories, excitedly sharing in the results together.

It makes Lup feel nostalgic in all the best of ways.

She rises then, stepping away from where Barry's hunched over, to walk a few feet here and there with the fragment in her hands. At first, there's just nothing. Five minutes pass, Lup walking the length of the boat, hair gone messy by the wind, and still nothing. Maybe it is some kind of a human thing. Or the kind of charm that elves are just immune to.]

Y'know, I'm startin' to think little Natey Drake is just majorly sleep deprived, I wouldn't be so surprised if - [It's just as she's crossing back over to Barry, ready to trade off on the fragment, that she hears it.

Both of her ears jerk upwards.] Wait.

[Yeah, it really might just be the fact that they're used to magic and Nathan isn't. Lup even starts pacing with the fragment in hand, no apparent change in her demeanor. At one point, instead of taking notes, Barry starts doodling next to Lup's name - like he used to back on the Starblaster. Hearts, geometric shapes, quick sketches of Lup's form.

Seems like she's not the only nostalgic one.]

Sleep deprived! Another important factor, didn't even think of that, Lup, that's...

[Barry looks up from his notes to see that Lup's expression has changed. His face immediately falls, forehead creasing with a frown both confused and concerned.] What? What's happening?

Shhh! [Lup hisses back almost immediately, drawing the fragment close to her body, pressed up against her chest, as if the closeness is what's going to make that connection suddenly stronger.

For a brief moment, there's nothing all over again, but then she hears it. Faint whispering. Too soft to really make any sense of, but just strong enough for Lup to feel confident in their existence, that her mind isn't just playing tricks on her. The elf cradles the fragment close, head tipped down towards it, mouth parted as she goes still and quiet.

Until her eyes finally slide over to Barry.] Well fuck.

[Barry goes entirely still, watching his wife with wide eyes as she pulls the fragment tight against her chest, her ears standing on end. Like she's listening for something.

He's not even documenting this. Not if it means taking his eyes off Lup right now.]

Wh-What? Lup, what's goin' on? Tell me what happened.

[A nervous glance at the fragment in her hands, innocent and glinting in the daylight. It looks completely unchanged. Barry can feel his fingertips tingling.] Maybe uh, put th'fragment down first.

I can hear it. Er, something, I can hear something. Just can't - [Her mouth hangs open for another moment, ear twitching, like it's right back whispering to her again, but it only lasts so long.] Just can't make it out.

[Barry wisely suggests that Lup set the fragment down, but the elf just draws it closer, frowning his direction.]

That's the opposite of what we need! It's - It's right there, I just gotta hang on a little longer, it's starting to get louder...

[Okay, that's not... the cute kind of keepsies Lup would play with the subjects in the lab when they worked together. That sounded almost a little... manic.

That's anything but good.

Barry slowly puts his pen down, one hand stretched out towards Lup, the other supporting his weight on the table as he rises to stand.]

Lup. Gimme the shard. I... [He swallows, mouth dry. His stomach feels heavy and cold.] I think somethin's wrong.

Get off my ass, Barry.

[The moment he moves to rise, hand outstretched in her direction, Lup takes an immediate step backwards to keep just out of his reach, the fragment pressed tight up against her chest. Even from this distance, it's easy to see the way her fingers are curling so possessively around the shard, enough that the pointed fragments are biting into her skin.

But Lup doesn't seem to notice, not if the scowl twisting at her lips says anything.] I just need another minute or two! I can hear it! It's right there. Just shut up for two seconds!

[Fuck.

That pit in his gut just grew tenfold, heavy and painful, sinking right through him like hot coal through ice. Lup is scowling, shouting at him, pulling away like a feral animal protecting itself. She’s clutching the fragment in a way that’s starting to look painful.

Barry can’t tell if she’s shaking, but he knows that he is. The fingers of his outstretched hand tremble in the sea breeze.]

Lup, please-- please j-just listen. This isn’t you. [He doesn’t dare approach her. What if she throws herself off the side of the ship to get away from him? Both her and the fragment could be lost to the waves.]

It’s fuckin’ with you. It’s messin’ with your head, Lup. It doesn’t have anything t’say, it j-just doesn’t want you t’let it go. You’re givin’ it what it wants. You-- You gotta fight it, Lup. Put it down.

[She hears Barry's voice, can see his mouth moving, lips shifting around every word, but the sound of the fragment's frantic whispering, dark and melodic, chaotic energy incarnate, is thrumming in her head louder and louder by the second. His voice is pushed aside for the noise from the shard, dulled by it's own growing strength, but even as it becomes clearer in her ears, she still can't quite understand it's frenzied instructions.

Barry trembles, he outright begs, but Lup just takes another step backwards, clutching the fragment to her chest, closer to the railing he fears she'll throw herself off of.]

I can't - [Her thin frame trembles, gaze darting from Barry to the other end of the ship and back, like she's cornered.] I can't hear it when you keep - [Long ears pin back, Lup's wild eyes flying to her left, like she hears the whispering right at her back now, as if she can feel breath on her shoulder from some unseen force.] I -

[But then her gaze meets Barry's, reads the words he's mouthing - You gotta fight it, Lup. Put it down. - and she gasps, dropping the fragment to her feet.]

[Barry feels breathless by the time she drops the fragment to the floor of the ship, like he didn't dare inhale for fear that it would spook her. But the fragment finally falls from her fingers, and he darts forward, like he's about to grasp the shard in his hands.

But instead, he takes Lup's trembling fingers in his hands, holding her firmly, squeezing her knuckles gently. Both to keep her from reaching down for the fragment again, and to comfort her, bring her back to herself.]

It's okay, Lup, it's okay. Y'did it. Nothing's th'matter. Y'did it.

[Barry's eyes dart to the fragment resting between their feet. They'd both sorely underestimated its powers.] F-Fuck... That was a close one...

[The fragment slips from her hand and the voice whispering in her ear is instantly gone, the emptiness that immediately follows a strange mix of relief and frantic uncertainty. But Lup knows enough about magical thralls to catch herself from giving into the need to chase after the fallen artifact, and the longer she goes without touching it, the more assured she is in that decision.

When Barry darts forward, looking like he's diving right for the fragment, Lup feels every muscle in her abdomen clench in painful anticipation, but then he's there instead, in front of her, holding her shaking hands within his, fingertips lightly dragging over her skin. He doesn't allow the fragment even a glance. His full attention is on Lup.

Something about that look makes the strong line of her shoulders tremble.]

Fuck. [She's so acutely aware of Barry's strong hands squeezing at her knuckles, how he's working to bring her back to him.] Guess Nate wasn't kiddin' around, huh?

[And after a quick, calming inhale through her nose, both of her long ears dipping down low towards her shoulders:] Didn't mean to scare the shit out of you.

It's okay, Lup. Y'couldn't help it.

[And while he means it, really, he knows it wasn't her fault, it still scared him. Barry has seen what magical thralls can do to people, what it can make otherwise upstanding, mentally sound people with good in their hearts really do, if given just a sliver of opportunity. The two of them had made artifacts with thralls so tempting and dangerous they leveled cities, ruined families, and slaughtered the users.

The last thing Barry wants to have happen is for Lup to fall under such a frightening thrall. He wouldn't want this for anyone he cares about, but... especially not Lup.]

We, uh... should probably lock this thing back up, huh? Wait 'til we can get it to th'lab, let the others know what t'look out for.

[Barry doesn't want to touch it anymore. Doesn't want to look at it anymore. But if they work together, they should be able to lock it up before anyone gets hurt...]

[Lup's experience with magical thralls has always been from far away, reading reports of the thousands dead by the hand of her relic or seeing the devastation after the fact, the smoldering remains of whole cities with the surrounding air thick with smoke. So this is new, even more so to experience it for herself, how the whispering curled around her every thought, so gently and so subtly, she'd barely even been aware of it.

That's somehow worse than the violent possession she'd thought it would be.

But Barry's right there, keeping her anchored to him, pulling Lup more and more into herself as the artifact's influence fades. And he looks so panicked, relieved that she's back with him, but Lup can see the toll it put him through. Like she hasn't put him through enough lately.]

Sorry. [It's a murmur, a barely there mumble under her breath, but that makes it no less significant and sincere. She means it.]

Yeah, you're probs right. Just. [her mouth feels dry at the thought] Just gotta put it away. [teeth bite down on her bottom lip, eyes darting down to the artifact wearily.] Just gotta pick it up and lock it up. That's all.

[No part of that seems at all easy to her right now, not after that.] Easy.

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[closed] (loud screaming) BOAT PARTY

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