erroneous messenger, sleep!

[incanted]

Brilliance is probably the first person to notice Rainbow's Janepoint broadcasting the message, "error 112358: inferior pattern recognition".

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[cardistry]

Brilliance huddles against her and cries.

There is a short silence, and then a soft noise from behind Bella, as of a door opening.

[incanted]

Bella manages to look over her shoulder without losing her focus on Brilliance's pain map.

[pythbox]

An unfamiliar person is taking aim with an unfamiliar staff.

[incanted]

She can't think with more than a percent of her brain, she has to keep Brilliance okay - she's invincible - he's not but he torches and - she slips a little on the non-body-map part, recaptures it, grits her teeth - he will not hurt more if they are shot.

She holds still. She holds Brilliance.

[pythbox]

The stranger fires their weapon.

Invincible or not, the dull grey beam still knocks Aurora all the way back against the opposite wall. Wrecks hell with her clothes, too. Brilliance is undamaged, but the force of impact separates them and he only travels half as far.

[incanted]

Bella focuses on the pain map.

If she can hold down the pain long enough, he'll recover, and he'll be able to do - something she can't currently think of because she has to focus on the pain map.

Don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt.

[cardistry]

The stranger walks up to Brilliance and grabs him by a fistful of his shirt, then starts dragging him out of the room. He struggles weakly.

[incanted]

- Not on.

Bella fights with her brain, trying to control Brilliance's pain, and then, for lack of any sophisticated solution, teleports in exactly the position she is in now to where Brilliance is, and then puts her and Brilliance and not the stranger back across the room where she was sitting.

She slips. A little. Not much. And then she focuses again.

[cardistry]

Brilliance clings to her as soon as she's within reach.

The stranger shrugs and takes aim again. This time, though, it's harder to knock them apart. The beam just slams them agains the wall and holds them there.

[incanted]

Bella leans over Brilliance, like a shield; she's the one with all the fancy defense wishes that Jokers disdain.

Don't hurt. Don't hurt. Don't hurt.

[cardistry]

"Look, I don't really care what you think you're doing," says the stranger. "That thing's mine, and if I have to pry you off it with a crowbar, I will."

Brilliance shivers.

[incanted]

"Mine," says Bella.

She'd have a sophisticated argument about Brilliance's personal autonomy if she had more brain, but she doesn't. Even a very little brain can declare Brilliance more hers than this creep's.

Don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt.

[cardistry]

"Your funeral," says the stranger, taking aim.

The beam doesn't hurt Bella, but it damages Brilliance. Nowhere near enough to torch him - but enough to make Bella's job just a little bit harder.

[incanted]

"Brilliance," murmurs Bella. "Sunshine."

She might've been about to say something else but she almost slips, she mustn't slip, he mustn't hurt, not allowed.

Don't hurt.

[cardistry]

+i love you,+ he says, hugging her tight. +i love you i love you i+

The stranger's attack barely lets up. Brilliance's shirt and jeans have almost completely disintegrated anywhere that the magical onslaught can touch him, and the skin underneath is halfway gone. There's a strange flickering hollowness to the parts of the nerve map corresponding to pieces of Brilliance that aren't physically there anymore, and that plus the uneven distribution makes it harder to keep everything suppressed.

[incanted]

Bella might say something. His name, his pet name, the same thing he just said -

She can't say anything. She has to concentrate. Don'thurtnonononononono -

[cardistry]

Her control is slipping around the edges. More and more, of what they're pushing on him with Devotion and what the blast is doing to his physical body, starts to get through.

Weirdly, that's what calms him down.

This isn't going to work forever. It's barely working now. He can wait and hope, or he can do something about it.

Any ability he might once have had to cast a spell or make a wish is a million miles away. He's too terrified to think straight. But Bella's right here. Bella can do things.

Bella is busy.

+let it go,+ says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"Sunshine," she murmurs, and she lets slip just enough that she can evaluate the idea, and it's the only idea, and she lets him go, and she gets up.

[cardistry]

He has enough time to show her that he loves her before he starts screaming again.

[incanted]

The first order of business is to take this asshole's staff. She squares it out of his hands, and out of the way; it might be loyal and explode or something if she tries to handle it herself. "Restore." For the damage already done; it's not much but it's something and it takes two syllables. "Who's hurting him?" she asks, pouring aura out; the threat sensor should help find the answer if this creep won't. This creep doesn't likely have her attentional capacity and she was losing it at the end; someone else has to be doing it.

[pythbox]

The major threat on board this ship is a magical weapons system attached to the ship itself. The asshole's staff is the next one down. Apart from that, there are a few more devices here and there that barely register, and then some humans with varying magical potential.

"Hurting who? The device? Lady, what are you after?"

[incanted]

Turn weapons system off. The staff's being quiet for now and might be alive; she lets it be for the time being. "The device. Who's hurting him? I am after it stopping right the fuck now. Who do I have to fucking kill to make it stop?"

She'd be less casual with the death threats if she didn't expect Jane back eventually to let her rethink any lethal decisions she might make.

[pythbox]

"Are you even armed?"

[incanted]

She flares aura, brightbrightbright, a powerful sorceress wants your entrails for decorations. "I don't have to be fucking armed! Do I have to magic your head from your shoulders to threaten the next asshole with? Who is hurting him?"

[pythbox]

"Calm down," the stranger says irritably, looking around for their vanished staff. "What's your stake in this? The noise is annoying, but you didn't have to come here and listen to it, now did you?"