peryton

[shesepankh]

Summer vacation elapses, and sees their storefront doing one heck of a business in the Avalon with the help of their griffin employee. There is a suggestion box for new spells they should invent, some of which have to be long-term projects but others of which are converted into new product fairly promptly.

School starts up again. Darren and Bella are both skipping straight into twelfth grade. (Bella looked into just starting college early, but while she does technically have the sort of resume that can lead to that kind of thing, she can't exactly write an essay about how she saved the life of another person and this caused her to have Moral Character, let alone about how she started a small business - so skipping one grade it is.)

They apply to colleges. They both get into University of Washington and get sufficient scholarships to accommodate both going there.

Summer ensues again.

One afternoon, Bella is over at Darren's, and has fallen asleep - in purring fullform - across his lap on the couch.

Comments

[shesepankh]

Bella leans, and this scream is a little less unfeigned than the last one.

Heavily favoring her most recently declawed paw, she drags herself out of the room.

And then collapses, healed.

[castmyown]

Darren glances around, then retrieves another invisibility scroll - his last one, in fact - and uses it on Bella.

He shifts to midform, drapes an invisible wing over her while still keeping thumbs, and he waits. For either the corpse to be found, his sister to be caught, or Bella to wake up.

[alicornucopia]

"HOLY SHIT," says one of the torturers, who went to get coffee. "ROB, HE'S REALLY REALLY FUCKING DEAD!"

[morethanimaginary]

Want to know who else is really, really fucking dead? Rob. Rob is really, really fucking dead. Savannah wipes off her bloodied knife onto his shirt, wondering if it's worth the time investment to eat his heart and take his form. The call from the coffee-retrieving torturer tells her that it's not. She gives the corpse a kick, because the bastard deserved it, and then she gets out her invisibility scroll and ceases to be visible.

She shifts in her wings, and she takes to the skies. She heads over to the torturer, the one that's found the corpse. This one gets to be the one that gets interrogated.

"Rob's not here right now," she says, in the dead fellow's voice. No use blowing her identity if she can avoid it, even if she's way better at the terrifying purr in her voice than dead fellow was. "Can I take a message?"

[alicornucopia]

"HOLY SHIT," repeats the non-Rob torturer.

[morethanimaginary]

"Nah, I don't look like shit at all. I'll accept the divinity, though."

She slams into him, invisible, keeping an eye out for the ink monster and ready to jump back into the skies at a moment's notice.

"So who's your boss?" she asks, pleasantly, like they're getting coffee together.

[alicornucopia]

"Oh my god who are you what's going on," babbles the torturer, flailing his hands at the invisible attacker.

[morethanimaginary]

"I," says Savannah, dodging the flailing hands and adding in some knives to the equation, "am the holy not-shit. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. This is an interrogation, I'm better at it than you are!"

She's still talking in a dead-man's voice, but the rest of her body's hers. She knows how to use it well. Knife. Knife to throat, and then one of the man's arms gets to go snap, because Savannah does not want to deal with its shit right now. The other gets pinned by Savannah's knee.

[alicornucopia]

He can dish it out, but he can't take it; he chokes back a scream.



Meanwhile, near the corridor of cubicle walls where Bella is passed out with Darren's wing over her, a darkness shoops around the corner.

[morethanimaginary]

"Tsk, tsk, I'm disappointed, that wasn't even the opener, it was just your arm annoying me," snorts Savannah. "But hey, if you want to make my job tons easier, go for it, pretend to be a knocked over jar and spill all of the beans."

[castmyown]

Darren looks up a the darkness, and then he sort of growls. That thing? That thing is going to die.

He retrieves a scroll, and he starts chanting, softly, under his breath.

[alicornucopia]

To be fair, he isn't spilling any beans, he's just tearing up and gibbering. He still has three functioning limbs; he is now using them to try to get away.




Shoop shoop.

[morethanimaginary]

Blah, annoying man. Now his other limbs are annoying her.

So, in turn, one by one - they get to go snap.

[castmyown]

Darren's not sure if this spell will work, but it seems the best bet of all of the spells he has on him. Energy-draining, life-stealing - he is going to unmake that - thing. Steal its essence away to nothingness.

He finishes his chant, and the spell goes.

[alicornucopia]

The torturer isn't struggling anymore. Well, he doesn't have much to do it with.

The darkness shudders - but doesn't stop.

Shooooop.

[morethanimaginary]

"See, isn't that nicer?" soothes Savannah, in false-sweet tones, once all limbs have gone snap and he's stopped annoying her. "Now we can get started! Exciting, isn't it? You sure you don't want to start talking now? Don't worry, I'll give you a breather, you can have some time to collect your thoughts."

[castmyown]

Darren hisses a curse word, and he starts fumbling for another scroll - what the hell will work against the thing, what on Earth kills it?

Another scroll - ice. He'll freeze the - thing. Whatever it is. He chants, and then - spell goes.

[alicornucopia]

The shooping darkness does not seem to be freezable. However, it doesn't like moving on the frost that forms on the floor. It stops, and starts edging around it.

The man takes his breather. During it, he breathes.

[morethanimaginary]

Savannah waits.

Then: "You ready to spill some beans?"

[castmyown]

Well, that's - something, at least.

Another ice spell, not even aimed at the shooping darkness, but aimed to cut it off from getting to him and Bella. He needs time to think - what can kill - inky darkness?

[alicornucopia]

"What do you want?" he asks fearfully.



The shooping darkness turns around.

An extremely optimistic person might think it has given up.

[morethanimaginary]

"Who's your boss? Why does he want to know where the sphinxes are? Why kidnapping and torture, you could have just as easily sat down for tea with the sphinx you snatched."

[castmyown]

Darren's not extremely optimistic. But - this is something, at least.

He shakes Bella, a little, hoping she'll wake up and - magic fairy princess the shooping darkness away.

(He thinks of which scrolls he should try, next.)

[alicornucopia]

"We worked for the guy you killed - he was working for somebody - we didn't snatch her, it was the dark thing!"

Bella shifts when shoved, but doesn't wake.

[morethanimaginary]

Well that's unfortunate. Hmm.

"Ah, yes. That thing. Not to worry, we have someone working on it, right this minute." She hopes. C'mon, Dare, don't let your sister down. Kill the hell out of the ink monster. "Got anything useful to tell me, or do I have to force it out of you?"